Although New Year s is no different than any other day in the calendar, we mark the opportunity by making resolutions on how we might work to improve or better our lives in the coming year. It s an acknowledgement that, while the future is always unknown, we play an active role in shaping our own reality, destiny and success.

And while 45% of Americans make resolutions, statistics suggest only 8% actually accomplish them. So in the spirit of achievable goals, I ve created a list of reasonable of financial resolutions for investors of all sizes.

Return to real estate

As an asset class, even real estate has shown a recent bid, tempting yield-hungry investors back into popular domestic names like Equity Residential (EQR), Mack-Cali Realty (CLI), SPDR Dow Jones Reit (RWR) along with many of the health care real estate names we wrote about last fall.

A slightly off-the-beaten path exposure to consider within a diversified portfolio is DWS REEF World Real Estate and Tactical Strategies Fund (DRP), a closed-end fund that has quietly risen 15% since we profiled it this summer. Yielding 6% with a concentration in Asian, Australia and the U.S., the fund still trades at a 17% discount to its underlying net-asset-value.

DWS RREEF World Real Estate & Tactical Strategies Fund (DRP) 3 months

Stop-loss everything

Nobody is right all the time. But every huge blow-up within a portfolio always germinates as a small loss coupled with an extremely stubborn investor who just had to be right. So one easily achievable resolution worth considering is to establish a stop-loss limit for every security within your portfolio, regardless of how bullish you or the market might be.

As with most disciplines, what matters most is simply having one. So rather than debate the merits of a 15% stop loss over a 20% limit, simply establish some a drop-dead exit point, as remote as it might seem, for every security in your portfolio using good-till-canceled orders with your broker that don t expire. In 15 minutes, you can buckle a proverbial seat belt that, no matter what happens to the economy, keeps you from crashing through the glass the next time markets spin off the road.

Find something new

In the period following the tech bust, it took a number of years to convince investors accustomed to investing only in big cap tech stocks like Microsoft (MSFT) and Cisco (CSCO) to consider alternatives like commodities or emerging market stocks. Of course, now all are among the herd's most popular trades.

So in 2010, challenge yourself to look outside your regular array of investment choices, a much easier process thanks to literally hundreds of funds and ETFs now tracking every imaginable asset. Venturing off the beaten path can work: the tin exchange-traded-note profiled in this space in March, iPath DJ Tin (JJT), has rallied some 50% over the past nine months.

Given the historically high relationship among risk assets right now, finding a truly independent asset isn t as easy as it seems. My favorites remain Japan, whose negative 0.07% correlation ranks among the lowest of developed markets. Names on my list: Canon (CAJ), Panasonic (PC), Hitachi (HIT) . The Nikkei has recently jumped sharply to a four-month high.

Strengthen your house

I have bad days in the market, but I never worry about paying my mortgage, electricity or credit-card bill. My investments are risk capital, supplemented by not only savings but, even more importantly, a lifestyle of living well within my means.

This was a year of massive deleveraging that saw the savings rate climb to 4.4% in October from 0.8% less than a year earlier. Despite the Keysnian concerns, that s actually a positive process. As we wrote last summer, saving -- not spending -- is the fuel that powers economic growth.

Sitting on a money-market account yielding 0.20% isn t going to make you rich, but it does provide the psychological cushion needed to deal with the inevitable volatility of still-fragile markets. Investors should continue to strengthen their financial foundation as a method of strengthening the risk tolerance over their overall portfolio. It s a lot easier to risk $1,000 when it s not your last $1,000.

Start watching charts

We first noticed financials crumbling in the summer of 2007 a trend that only became readily apparent to the mainstream media well into the following year. Similarly, the historic rebound for equities that began in March was evident in markets well before the economic data began to tick up. As we always like to point out, the best indicator of the market is the market itself.

So for 2010, get in the habit of including a stock s price action as an integral component of your research and becoming intimately familiar with not only how a company is doing, but how the stock itself is performing. The story always shows up there long before it makes the papers or TV news.

Visit the Mint

With many investors rightly concerned about the inflationary pressures born from government spending and printing of money, now might be an opportune time to visit the historic Philadelphia Mint, which began operations in 1793 and was the Republic s first official building raised after the Constitution.

United States Mint, Philadelphia, PA. (Photo courtesy of ushistory.org)

The current facility offers free, self-guided tours where you can actually see coins being produced at a rate of 32 million per day a sobering reminder that there s a distinct difference between printing money and actually creating wealth.

At the time of writing, Hoenig s fund held positions in many of the securities mentioned.