New Year Tips for your money

Your tax and spend budget

You need to motivate yourself to do the boring be-good-with-your-money stuff. So be like the government: tax your spending, reward your saving. Here’s how:

Only spend cash

It’s much easier to spend on plastic, so tax your spending by only using cash - it’s much harder to part with. Lock the credit cards in a drawer and draw cash for all your normal spending. Be amazed at how much less leaves your bank account.

Save before you spend

You benefit in two ways from only buying things you’ve saved up for: you don’t pay any interest, and it’s almost always cheaper because prices are falling and there’ll soon be another sale. And real cash earns even bigger discounts.

One for the pot

Cutting out wasteful spending is dull, which is why it’s hard to do. So make it more interesting. Keep track of the savings: for every £5 saved, £1 goes into a treats kitty. Use it for real indulgences - guilt-free.

Commit now

Be like politicians who promise to spend less tomorrow? No. Instead make a commitment to save more tomorrow.  Every pay increase, every bonus, every windfall - a bit of it goes into your long-term savings plans. That molehill will become a mountain.

• Re-assess your investing objectives. For the children and their education,  your mortgage repayment, and your retirement.
• Check the rates on your interest bearing accounts. There are lots of good offers to tempt at this time.
• If you can use your tax efficient allowances, ISAs and pension

Compare it all

Never pay a renewal premium on any form of insurance without getting comparison quotes from sites like comparethemarket.com and confused.com. There’s always one stupid insurer desperate to win new business at a lower price – let them give you some money.

• Check insurance policies are still relevant to your requirements.
• Review the levels and beneficiaries.

Chris Gilchrist for The Successful Personal Investing Course from Independent Research Services

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