How to make financial resolutions stick

It’s that time of year again, where we’re packing up the Christmas decorations with a possible hint of optimism for the new year. Many of us pledge to be a shiny new version of ourselves, with renewed goals and motivation.

We’ve found that 21% of people say they want to save more in 2025, proving to be the most popular financial resolution from our research. But it’s no newsflash that resolutions can be hard to keep. This could leave people feeling downtrodden and discontent as they head into the new year.

We’ve put together five techniques that can be shared with employees to help their resolutions stick:

1. Be specific

If you make a general pledge to spend less with no real focus, it’s unlikely to be successful. Start by drawing up a budget of everything you spend and everything you earn. Your banking app may feature spending categories, or you can look through past statements.

This should help you identify where you’re overspending, so you can make a specific pledge – like to reduce how much you eat out or stop buying clothes on payday.

2. Change one thing

Completely transforming your life overnight isn’t sustainable. It’s far better to set clear, achievable goals, one at a time.

The HL Five to Thrive framework shows any expensive short-term debts should be your priority. Next is protecting your family with things like insurance and a will, before moving onto building emergency savings and saving for the future.

Your resolution will depend on where you are on this path, but don’t try to do everything at once.

3. Give up the things you don’t like first

Sacrificing things like takeaway coffee seems like an obvious choice, because it’s a luxury we don’t actually need. But by giving up the little things that bring joy to your day, you’re likely to struggle and may fail to see your resolution through.

Before sacrificing the things you love, think about the things which bring you less joy – like overpaying for your mobile phone or broadband or buying expensive grocery brands.

4. Do the right thing automatically

Positive changes can be set 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 can, set it to come out of your account on payday – before you have a chance to miss it – so you automatically do the right thing every month.

Or if one of your resolutions is to start investing, a great option is setting up a direct debit into an investment account. An investment account is a bit like a basket – it isn’t an investment in its own right. It’s where you hold any investments, like funds or shares which you choose to purchase.

And often you can choose for your direct debit to automatically invest into particular holdings every month. The automation takes the effort out of remembering to pay in each month, and helps you to consistently build a portfolio. Just pay what you can – you can start with as little as £25 when investing in an HL account.

Keep in mind that unlike the security offered by cash, investments can go down as well as up in value, so you could get back less than you invest.

5. Be realistic

If you set unrealistic goals and put pressure on yourself to achieve them, you’ll soon run out of momentum. Try to be honest with yourself and set smaller, more realistic goals.

So rather than pledging to overhaul your finances as one resolution, you could save a sensible, affordable sum every month to pay off debts or gradually build emergency savings. Or if one of your goals is to save for the long term, it can be worth paying more into your pension if you can afford to. But keep in mind you can’t normally access money in your pension until you’re 55 (57 from 2028).

With these small steps, you’re more likely to achieve your goals and you’ll be encouraged to maintain positive, long-term changes.

This article is not personal advice. If you are unsure of a course of action, please ask about advice.

We offer a workplace savings platform that caters for employees at every life stage. This includes easy access to a Group SIPP and payroll-enabled ISA and Fund and Share Accounts, all fully supported by our tailored financial wellbeing programmes. We also offer Active Savings (cash deposits), a Lifetime ISA and Junior ISAs, all accessed via our user-friendly app.

All figures from HL Opinium Survey, September 2024. 2000 respondents.

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