Top financial experts reveal their key resolutions for a prosperous 2024

Want a wealthier 2024? We asked financial experts to share their top money resolutions that ought to help grow your wealth with as little effort as possible.

Sarah Coles of investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown

Give up the things you don’t like first, before those you love. Sacrificing habits such as takeaway coffee seems like an obvious choice, because it’s a luxury we don’t really need. However, if you give up all the little things that make every day a bit more pleasant, you’ll have to make ten difficult decisions a day, and you’ll eventually give up.

It’s a good idea to cut back on these luxuries, but before you give up the things you love, it makes far more sense to give up the things you don’t love at all – like overpaying for your mobile phone or broadband or buying expensive grocery brands.

Secondly, don’t try to do the right thing every day. Instead, fix it up to happen without you thinking about it. If you need to build your savings, set up a direct debit to go into a savings account each month. If you want to start investing, a regular saver is a great option, where your direct debit pays into an investment account every month.

Jason Hollands of wealth manager Evelyn Partners

If you are planning to invest, review your existing investments before putting a penny of new money into the markets.

Want a wealthier 2024?: We asked financial experts to share their top money resolutions that ought to help grow your wealth with as little effort as possible

Many people are ad hoc investors, who choose a new fund to put in their Isa or pension at the end of the tax year based on whatever is riding high or catches their attention, with little relevance to what they already own and whether the new investment idea will fit well alongside it. 

Over time, that approach leads to sprawling collections of funds without an overall strategy and can result in too much exposure to particular regions or sectors. Reviewing what you already own, weeding out any disappointing funds and rebalancing your portfolio if necessary is an important thing to do periodically and will help you identify where any new investments should be made.

Rebecca O’Connor of pension firm PensionBee

Becoming your own financial planner is a great resolution. I am a big fan of making a financial plan for the year ahead. It’s a good first step to being more in control. Once you have a realistic ‘wish list’ of things you would like to achieve financially or spend on and a rough estimate of the cost, work out if you will be able to afford these things and if not, what you will need to spend less on or change to afford them.

Your goals don’t need to just involve spending – they could be things like ‘having a £5,000 rainy day fund’ or ‘paying £100 a month more into my pension’.

Focusing on the big things you want to achieve is very useful and can help you when deciding on cutbacks in other areas. A plan, written down, is an anchor. You can keep checking back on how you are doing throughout the year.

Stacey Lowman, financial coach at Claro Wellbeing

Goals: Coach Stacey Lowman

Many of us try to tackle too many strands of our finances at once in our New Year money resolutions. But when we make generic goals like ‘be better with money’, ‘spend less’ or ‘save more’, we add pressure to every money decision we make and slip-ups are inevitable.

Instead, take a hyper-focused approach so your money resolutions are easier to keep. Set yourself a monthly maximum spend or number of transactions with your chosen retailer. For example, instead of ‘have fewer takeaways’, focus on spending less with Deliveroo specifically. Or instead of ‘buy fewer items of clothing’, focus on Asos specifically.

Think of some changes you will make to achieve each new goal, then track your monthly spending closely. Each month you achieve your goal, transfer the money you save from your current account to a savings account, so you can see the benefits.

Alice Guy of investment platform Interactive Investor

Think big: Interactive’s Alice Guy

Think big. Sit down and consider what you want to achieve in the next ten to 15 years. Then set smaller, achievable goals to get you there.

Keep things simple – it’s better to have two or three achievable financial goals than ten you don’t meet.

Like a lot of parents, my retirement savings had to take a back seat during a career break to care for my family. Now I’m back working full time I’m aiming to maximise my pension contributions in 2024 and pay in all I can afford. I have an overall goal for my pension and also some smaller goals along the way to make it achievable.

Chris Rudden of investing platform Moneyfarm

Don’t forget to enjoy life – it is short after all. Planning for the long term is really important, but so is spending money on yourself and loved ones. Life is for living and it is important to enjoy yourself. If you know how much money you have now, and how much you need later in life, you can decide if you have enough to spend now on holidays, experiences and enjoying life now.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk