In a world touting get-rich-quick schemes and lottery winners, it’s no wonder that so many of us want — and expect — wealth fast. We live in a social media age where we only see the fruits and not the labor, and the winners without the failures along the way.

So many of us treat our financial health like a new year’s resolution: something to break and forget about a month into the new year. If you’ve struggled to maintain healthy money habits in the past, know that you’re not alone and you’re not a lost cause. Financial freedom is possible. Wealth-building? Possible. A great retirement? Absolutely.

Financial success isn’t beyond your reach, no matter where you are starting this year. That isn’t to say it won’t be challenging: but it is also infinitely rewarding.

When we talk about building wealth, there is usually the notion or expectation that it will cost us something to do so. We will either have to make sacrifices to build wealth, spend money to build wealth, or somehow do something we are uncomfortable with in order to make long-term gains in the future.