The space between Christmas and New Year is often a nothing burger as we wait for the old year to finally go and the new one to arrive. But this offers the perfect opportunity to check over your finances and ensure that you have a clear plan in mind for next year. So over the next few days I'm going to offer some suggestions which may help you to keep your finances in the best possible fettle. The trick of course is to avoid the inertia which financial companies rely on to bolster their profits. But it does take a little work.
A good place to start is to make sure that you know how your cash flow sits. My surveys show that more than half of households do not have a good handle on the money coming in and going out. Remember that financial stress as measured by cash flow is registering as high as ever. So more people would do well to get a grip on their cash flows.
Once you've done this for example by using data from bank statements and other sources you can project this forward over the next 12 months and use this as a basis for planning. Identify those payments which are necessary, those which are nice to have and those which really are not perhaps needed. One trick here is to look for those regular payments you signed up for via online using credit or debit cards. Those payments will renew unless you take steps to stop them something which actually is not always easy to do!
