New year, new financial plan

There’s something about the start of a new year that infiltrates our psyche so that we look to the year ahead and the changes we want to make. You don’t need to be a ‘New Year’s resolution person’ to feel it in the air. Faced with the blank page of the new year, it’s human nature to wonder how we’ll fill it.

The empty runway, the clean slate, the opportunity of possibility—it’s exciting. Bright eyed and optimistic, in the early weeks and months of the new year, many people think to themselves:

This is the year…I’ll get financially organised
This is the year…I’ll stop letting my cash sit idle in a bank account
This is the year…I’ll clear my debt
This is the year…I’ll start planning for retirement

Sometimes, these hopes evolve into dinnertime conversation. Occasionally, they’ll even be written down—making it onto your 2026 goals list. Unfortunately, more often than not, great intentions stay that way. Before you know it, that early-year zest fades, life is back in full swing, and you’re too busy with the here and now to think about taking on tasks that just feel too big and too long-term to be a priority today.

As a financial advisor, this is where I point out the error of this pattern. The opportunity cost of not getting moving on your financial planning goals is huge. Let’s say you have $200,000 sitting there in a zero interest bank account. If you let another 12 months go by without getting a compound return, that’s just money lost. Money that would otherwise go towards serving your other financial goals, like helping out with the grandkids’ education, or shrinking your mortgage.

The cost of inaction applies to just about every significant financial decision. Delaying your SMSF optimisation; holding onto underperforming assets; neglecting to invest, refinance, or review your structures—it all incurs a hefty opportunity cost.

Most people are aware of this on some level, which is why financial goals left on the shelf tend to gnaw at us, cropping up in our peripheral vision every once in a while to send a brief current of regret, before disappearing under the wave of life’s busyness again.

There are few instances where financial advice is universal. This is one of them: The best time to start was yesterday, but the second best time is today.

What that looks like in practically is first asking yourself what you want to achieve in 12-months time. From there, work backwards to define your SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) objectives for this year and for the future. The value of the SMART method is that it shifts good intentions into actionable plans.

For example, I often hear people say their goal for the year is to become financially organised. The SMART framework requires to dig deeper into the layers of this objective, asking yourself, among many other questions:

What does ‘financial organisation’ actually mean to me?
What am I actually trying to fix or improve?
What specific behaviours would change if I achieved this?
How will I know if I’m succeeding?

The more definition you give your objectives, the clearer your path forward, the greater your likelihood of sitting here in 12-months time with a crossed off list and a smile on your face.

So if one or two of those “this is the year…” thoughts have been looming in the background, now’s the time to give them some shape. If guidance from an experienced wealth management team forms part of your action plan, get in touch with our wealth advisors for a confidential conversation while the year’s young.

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