Happy New Year! Welcome to 2019! Yaaaaaaassssssss we made it!
At the beginning of every year, people set some goals that they aspire to achieve in order to live better and generally be better people. For me, I have already set a list of targets for myself that I would like to achieve before I turn forty (click HERE for my Forty by Forty bucketlist). So instead of a typical New Year’s resolutions list, I have set some financial resolutions. Not just for 2019 but life onwards hopefully. Here we go:
1. Keep a money diary. I got this idea after reading this article where a journalist decided to track her spending for a month. God knows I love a good handbag but with my new bae (being my bank!), I need to try not to get too carried away. Keeping a money diary should keep me honest and hopefully frivolous too!
2. Save at least 20% of my annual salary by the end of the year. In theory, this seems completely doable but in reality… I just need to be careful that I actually do this.
3. Pay off 50% of bank loan for my flat. When I bought my property, I put down a 5% deposit and got a mortgage for 80% of the property and a bank loan for 15% of the rest of the value of the property. I would like to get the bank loan paid off as soon as possible so aiming to pay off 50% of it (i.e. 7.5% of the property value) by the end of the year which seems ambitious but at least it will significantly reduce my debt burden and also alleviate the (relatively!) high rate of applicable interest.
4. Ensure I make at least one overpayment on my mortgage. Overpayments shorten the lifetime of the mortgage and also reduce the amount of interest paid because there is no interest paid on the amount overpaid. So if I can make at least one or two overpayments on my mortgage each year, I will hopefully get out of debt quicker and end up with more money in my pocket than I would have if I stuck with the original repayment schedule.
5. Sort out all my pension plans from all previous jobs and get them consolidated into one plan.
6. Look for an alternative route to saving/investment e.g. stocks rather keeping money as cash. Cash has a depreciating value due to inflation so if it’s not in a high interest account it is not really maximising its earning potential. So I am going to shop around this year for investment options whether it be a high interest account or stocks but I need to make sure that my savings are not just sitting in an account losing value.
7. Plan and stick to a monthly budget. I did make a rough attempt at this when I first started looking at getting a mortgage but now that I actually have one, I need to take things seriously so I don’t get in trouble.
8. Deleting shopping apps from my phone. I find myself browsing on the ASOS app fairly frequently and somehow end up ordering on a regular basis. After the end of the first quarter of last year, I deleted the Zara app from my phone which saved me a lot. So this year, it will be deleting the ASOS app from my phone.
9. Use cash more. It sounds a bit odd but actually I keep track more of the money I spend in cash than I do when I use my card or pay via direct debit because the cash is physically in my hand so I tend to think more before I spend it.
10. Keep an eye on my account – check account balance at least once a week and verify all transactions. I was a victim of credit card fraud last year and I almost missed the transaction because I didn’t check my account regularly. Regular checks will hopefully encourage more financial prudence and also assist in keeping monies safe.
Bonus – not kill myself financially. I still want to travel, see friends, go out and generally live my best life. I just need to do that in a cost-efficient way that allows me to save for the long-term but not deprive and starve myself in the short-term.
What are your 2019 resolutions? Feel free to share – money or otherwise in the comments below.
