The Top 5 New Year Financial Concerns

1. Debt: Managing and reducing personal debt, including credit cards and personal loans is a common financial concern and can be particularly acute at this time of year. ‍
2. Inflation: Rising prices directly impact the cost of living, which can cause stress and anxiety for families. Much has been made of falling inflation in the media with the UK CPI rate in November reducing to 3.9% from a peak of 9.6% last year. It’s important to remember that this doesn’t mean prices are reducing, just increasing at a slower rate than before. 
3. Retirement savings: People may worry about whether they are saving enough to achieve their desired lifestyle in later life. Immediate financial pressures can seem more important than saving for retirement. Yet early retirement planning enables compound interest and increases in the value of stocks and shares to help your savings grow over time.
4. Housing costs: Housing costs often represent a huge proportion of people’s monthly outgoings. CITY AM recently reported that Londoners spend a staggering 70% of income on housing and essential bills. It is little wonder that concerns over rental pricing, housing affordability, mortgage rates, and property values are of huge concern to people.
5. Emergency Fund: It is important to build up an emergency fund that can be accessed in unexpected circumstances. Unforeseen situations such as a boiler replacement, emergency car repairs or redundancy can generate huge financial pressures.

Rather than leaving these uncertainties to chance, taking control of your finances and developing a plan can enable you to alleviate many of these concerns. BudgetWise can help you with this. We passionately believe in empowering people to understand their financial circumstances so they can make informed choices about the future. Foresight is always better than hindsight!

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