Washington ? Each new year I wonder if it’s worth it to make another list of resolutions that are bound to be broken before Valentine’s Day.

But you know, it is worth the effort. We all could do better. We should eat less junk food and drink more water and spend more quality time with our friends and family. And there are many people who desperately need to get their financial lives in order.

So stop fussing and make the promises, especially the ones to improve your personal finances.

In fact, in a survey conducted by Intuit Inc., 61 percent of the respondents listed better money management as one of their top three resolutions for 2004. Nearly 60 percent designated “shrinking their credit card debt” as their No. 1 financial resolution for the New Year, three times more than the second-highest concern, “saving for retirement” (20 percent). The next highest priorities were “saving for children’s college” (12 percent) and “signing up for online bill payment” (5 percent).

If you’ve decided to be a become fiscally fit in 2004, you may be wondering how to get started, Well, here’s what several financial planners recommend:

l Write down your financial resolutions. Oh sure, you’ve heard this before, but have you done it? “Writing down resolutions and then planning how you will reach them will actually stimulate a part of the brain called the reticular activating system, which will begin collecting information and routing it to the conscious part of the brain,” said Dee Lee, a Harvard, Mass.-based certified financial planner and author of “Women & Money: Your Personal Finance Guide.” Once you have a plan, it becomes harder to squander your money. Lee said: “If you want to get out of debt and are about to click the buy button on eBay, you will have some nagging doubts about doing it because you have a written plan.”

l Commit to educating yourself. “Often an individual will choose to do nothing about their personal financial planning because they just do not know or understand their options and choices,” says Yvonne Bass, a Maryland-based financial adviser for American Express. So subscribe to a personal finance magazine. Get a basic personal finance book (and actually read it) or attend a financial seminar (and not one that is touting a get-rich quick scheme).

l Don’t try to be a money-saving martyr. There’s probably fat in your budget, but resolving to eliminate entire expense categories, such as eating out, rarely works. Instead, try trimming various expenses by 10 percent or 20 percent. For example, if you can manage to save even $60 a month by cutting out a few restaurant meals, you’ll have $720 at the end of the year. That kind of savings would go a long way to help pay a car repair bill or help a college student buy textbooks.

l Save something. “With current balances in personal savings accounts and retirement plans at an all-time low, we have to make that commitment to pay ourselves first. Having cash reserves on hand for opportunities or emergencies is essential,” Bass said. If saving 10 percent seems too daunting, start with 5 percent or less.