Resolve to take better care of hard-earned cash

WE’RE nearly at the end of 2019 and a new decade begins in a few days. So why not take some time this weekend to reflect on how well or how badly you think you’ve handled your money this year, and what you might be able to do to change things in 2020?

Money is really important to all of us, not necessarily because we all want more of it all the time, but because we need it to pay bills, buy things and generally function as a member of society.

Unfortunately most of us don’t spend enough time thinking about how we deal with it, which is why I’m urging you to do that at some point between now and the start of the new year.

Look at the deal you currently have on your mortgage, your gas and electricity bills, house insurance, life insurance, car insurance, phone bills, and broadband packages.

I could go on, there are lots of other things we spend money on without thinking too much about where we’re spending it and why. We’re pretty apathetic when it comes to our money.

Partly because if we don’t take too much interest in it we can always just blame someone when something goes wrong. Or we can say that so many of the products and services that we buy are made to be much more complicated than they actually need to be, so it’s all just too much hassle.

When was the last time you looked for the best mortgage deal? Have you changed your current account in the last 10 years? What’s the balance of your current account, and if it’s positive are you actually earning any interest on that money?

How much is in your pension, and is it enough to retire when you want to retire, or will you still be working when you’re 70?

I could keep going with these questions but you get the idea. Go and sit down and ask yourself some of them before you start to make resolutions for next year.