What are your financial New Year's resolutions?

It's two days before the new year begins, which means it's time to get your resolutions in order.

Personally, I've decided to break my resolution to eat less junk food, drink less soda and get in better shape before 2010 even starts. Why wait for the mid-January rush to end my resolutions?

But I do hope to make — and keep — some financial resolutions this year. According to a recent study from financial services company Fidelity Investments, I'm not alone.

Fidelity's research was based on a telephone survey of a national probability sample of 1,008 U.S. adults (504 men and 504 women). It was completed by Opinion Research Corp. this year between Nov. 12 and 15.

The results show that 35 percent of Americans who are 18 years old or older typically consider New Year's resolutions regarding their finances. For 2010, however, 43 percent said they are likely to consider financial resolutions.

That number increases to 55 percent among people who are 35 to 44 years old. I'm smack dab in the middle of that demographic, and it's nice to know I fit in for a change!

Breaking the numbers down a bit more, Fidelity found that 51 percent of survey respondents said saving more money would be their primary focus in the new year. That was followed by 30 percent who said spending less was their goal, and 14 percent who said they were going to try making or sticking to a budget.

I'm hoping to do better in all three areas. Our family faced some unexpected medical expenses in 2009, and that put us in a bit of a financial hole. We've been doing little things like cutting out visits to fast food restaurants and making fewer purchases of huge, delicious convenience store fountain beverages (how I miss them) in an attempt to both save more and spend less.

As for budgeting, we do OK, but we're hoping to develop even better tools in the coming year.

The Fidelity survey also showed that 71 percent of people hope to increase their confidence level in their finances with their resolutions. But 30 percent of respondents said it was harder to keep a financial resolution than other popular resolutions.

I can understand that. It almost seems unfair that people would try to make financial resolutions right after shattering previous goals during the run-up to Christmas. But if you think about it, there's no better time than right after the holiday season to resolve to do things better in the coming year.