Maybe you need to go public with them.

Writing down your goals helps make them real. Sharing them with others makes you accountable.

If you really want to go for it, consider entering the “Pay Yourself First” contest I’m co-hosting with FNBO Direct, the online arm of the First National Bank of Omaha.

You enter by creating a brief, 1-minute video explaining what you’re saving for, then upload the video to a special YouTube site. (You’ll find it by clicking the “Enter Now” button on the Pay Yourself First site.)

Just entering wins you a $10 Amazon gift card. Twenty finalists will get $500, and the five final challengers–whose progress toward their savings goals will be chronicled on the site for six months–will get a dollar-for-dollar match of their savings up to $5,000.

The grand prize winner gets a fabulous spa vacation.

The deadline for entries is July 31. Even if you don’t enter, you can check out the videos and follow the progress of the challengers when that phase of the contest begins Oct. 6.

TAGS: savings