NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Lose weight. Quit smoking. Make spouse feel special. New Year's resolutions are always filled with good intention.

Unfortunately, they're not always kept. Most of us are back at the drive-through window before the first sign of spring. But what about resolutions that come with a powerful incentive? Resolutions that put money -- sometimes thousands of dollars -- into your pocket? Now that's a leaf worth turning over.

Consider these 10 resolutions, some that you can quantify, and some that are so invaluable you can't attatch a dollar sign. If you try even a few of them you'll be in much stronger financial shape by this time next year.

Sock away the maximum in your retirement plans, which is $12,000 for a 401(k) and $3,000 for an IRA in 2003, and at 7.5 percent interest you'll have $15,712 saved at this time next year. The money grows tax-deferred and over the years, if you keep adding to the stash, it will grow even more thanks to the power of compounded interest. The savings limits increase to $15,000 for 401(k)s by 2006 and $5,000 for IRAs by 2008 -- more if you're at least 50, as part of new 'catchup' provisions.

If you contribute the max every year for 25 years, you'll wind up with about $1.5 million by 2028, said David Caruso, a certified financial planner from Boston.

"Think of it as giving yourself a million-dollar present for Christmas," Caruso said. "It's the best thing you can do for yourself."

Click here for more on retirement planning, and click here to use CNN/Money's retirement planner calculator.

Credit card debt is the dirty little secret of holiday gifts. A $100 scarf, a $25 coffee table book; it all adds up. More so when you consider the corrosive effect of credit-card debt.

The average card balance is $3,250, according to myvesta.org, a non-profit group that teaches people about smart spending. If you pay only the minimum amount due every month, it would take you 39 years to pay it all off. At 18 percent interest, you'd end up paying $8,680 in interest alone.

Click here for CNN/Money's debt reduction calculator, and here to calculate credit card payments.

You may be one of the unlucky thousands who lost a job this year. Or, you may be one of those still working who feels like a character out of Dilbert -- underappreciated, underpaid and overworked. Either way, finding a new job is the No. 1 New Year's resolution this year, according to customers who use mygoals.com, an online personal coach.

Many end up better off. About 80 percent of people who find new employment meet or improve their salary, according to John Challenger, chief executive of the employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Click here to find out how much people earn in different professions.

No matter your net worth, an estate plan will ensure your family is provided for after you're gone. Such plans generally include a will, a living will, assignment of power of attorney and medical power of attorney. For some people, a trust may also make sense.

One obvious fiscal benefit of estate planning is it shields your assets from federal taxes, said Roger Levine, an estate planning attorney with Levine & Furman in East Brunswick, N.J. The amount you may leave to your heirs tax-free is $1 million in 2003 -- but after that your heirs pay taxes that start at 41 percent. The limit increases to $3.5 million in 2009, with a full repeal in 2010. Still, the changes aren't permanent and revert back to a $1 million cap in 2011, unless the Bush administration makes them permanent.

How much can lack of planning cost your estate? Consider parents with one child and $2 million in assets. If both die during the year without an estate plan, the child would have a tax tab of $435,000. With a proper financial plan, the child would pay no taxes at all.

Click here to learn more about estate planning, and click here to calculate your net worth.

There's an old financial-planning adage, "pay yourself first." If you wait until after you pay the rest of your living expenses, there won't be anything left. Pat Jennerjohn, a CFP from Oakland, Calif., tells her clients to sock away one-third of their salaries into a savings account. If that's not practical, try to save $100 a month until you have six months of living expenses set aside.

Click here to calculate your savings, and click here to learn about the basics of banking and savings.

Out of 47 million smokers, 10 percent will try to kick the habit Jan. 1, according to Tom Glynn, director of cancer science and trends at the American Cancer Society. With cigarettes costing anywhere from $5 to $7.50 a pack, that amounts to savings of roughly $2,500 a year.

On top of that, it costs smokers an average of $3,391 a year in lost productivity, illness and other related expenses, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Men also lose an average of 14.5 years off their lives, while women lose an average of 13.2 years -- and how do you put a pricetag on life itself?

Another common resolution is to lose those love handles. The average American dieter spends around $510 a year on weight loss products, and anywhere from $44 to $77 a month on health club memberships. But it could save you something far more precious: Obesity kills some 300,000 Americans per year and health-care costs associated with the disease top $100 billion annually. It also leads to lost productivity and higher absenteeism on the job, costing businesses $47.6 billion per year -- and you a potential promotion if you're not in your seat often enough to perform your work.

Americans spend about 46 percent of their food budget on restaurants and takeout food, according to Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit group that advocates better nutrition. The average person eats out at a restaurant four times a week. Those meals are so loaded with fat you get a day's worth of calories out of each one, CSPI said.

At the same time, the average per-capita spending on restaurant meals was $846 a year -- $2,116 a year for the average household, according to a 1999 study by the National Restaurant Association. That makes eating out expensive and fattening. Need we say more?

A 2001 survey by directpayment.org, a non-profit group that advocates electronic bill payments, found that 35 percent of people had been late with major credit card payments, 19 percent had been late on car loan payments, and 17 percent were late with payments to gas station or department store accounts. About 57 percent of those surveyed said they paid fees of $25 or more; 36 percent paid fees of $50 or more. Credit-card late fees have more than doubled since 1996.

Get a system in place to avoid those fees in the future.

Saving for retirement, quitting smoking, finding that dream job. They all deliver financial rewards. But what about a vow to spend more time with your daughter? Or a pledge to be a nicer human being? There are plenty of worthy resolutions in life that you can't quantify.

And in uncertain times, it's more important than ever to make each moment count. So sit back and smell the roses -- it's priceless.