What are your financial goals for 2023?

[TTCm]

I thought I’d start a light-hearted thread for those who what to share their financial goals for next year. I know money is tight right now, so people sharing their goals may give some encouragement to meet them.

I will be on maternity leave for 10 months next year, so my goals are:

1. to save £3,000 by the end of next year from my salary before mat leave and a bit of my enhanced pay.
2. save on Christmas / birthday gifts by being organised and buying in the sales and planning early rather than panicking last minute and spending more on presents!

Here’s to a good year next year 🙂

Pay 10% off my mortgage balance (max allowed under my fixed rate term).

In May, DH and I finally pay off our mortgage. We have been overpaying a lot to get to this point. In my first marriage I paid 21 years and only had 4 years left when I got divorce so I feel like I have been paying a mortgage for ever and ever. I can't wait.

Congrats x

I am very organised. I have a spreadsheet which tracks how much I'm saving now and any anticipated changed to that - e.g payrise, end of fixed rate mortgage. I then have all my pots of what I need. I know when I should reach each target.

This comes off too many years of not being organised made worse by an ex who was crap with money so I got resentful about being the one to be saving.

My mortgage went from 13 to 22 years when I divorced. It's depressing.

To finish paying off our 0 %credit card- will be done by march 🥳

Not buy what we don't need

Not waste money but live out the cupboards and very full freezer for a month or two.

Sell spare stuff on vinted

Enjoy time together in the house / garden/ local walks,not always eating out or spending money enjoying ourselves

We massively cut down on spending this Christmas and had a brilliant time so will repeat that going forward.

I think a lot of people call them “pots” so I think you’re already doing them - you’re way ahead of me! Basically putting money away each month for things you know you definitely need to pay for but into a separate pot or account, rather than keeping all your spending money in your current account and buying garden furniture because you have “loads” then realising you forgot you have a tax bill again (I have done this every year for over 20 years ffs)

@PauliesWalnuts I am sorry for your loss. Could the Civil Service Benevolent Fund, now called For You by You, help you with the funeral costs?

We have set up a regular saver account with decent interest to pay into every month then after a year, will overpay that into the mortgage (coz it's a higher interest rate than the mortgage).

I also need to work out how to sell stuff on vinted. Got new clothes, still in packaging to sell but keep putting it off.

To pay off half the line of credit that IVF landed us in - £23k, hoping to have it down to £11,500 or less by the end of this year.

To stop frittering money away on take out endlessly and be more mindful and frugal.

If the IVF works, this should be easy as I'll spend the next 8 months throwing up and miserable, unable to enjoy a takeaway anyway.

To build up savings, stop spending money on shite I don't need.

I am clearing debt after becoming horrified at how much I had gotten into! All payable and good credit rating but writing it all down I was nearly sick!

the last 18 months I’ve cleared about 60%. I’d like to half it again this year and clear it by the end of 2024. I think it’s doable and already, I feel a massive weight is lifted by clearing what I have.

My divorce will be final in February. The money I have been paying every month to the solicitors will end this month so I'm going to save that amount every month and put it in my isa, as I've been doing fine without it.
I'm moving into my new house fingers crossed in February and my bills will be less than I'm currently paying so I'll be able to save for some driving lessons and a car with the difference. I'm very excited for 2023 after having a really tough couple of years.

Good to have a place to write this down!

Overpay the mortgage as much as possible as the interest is around 150 a month and it pains me to pay it.

Build savings up while paying for the two holidays abroad we've booked (before the cost of everything went up). £640 plus speeds to pay for one of them. £1200 left to pay plus spends for the other.

Pay off the small amount on the credit card (about £350).

Have a general savings buffer of around £1500 again. We do have savings and investments of a couple of thousands but we wouldn't touch that unless it was life or death.

Recover my overpaid tax and NI which will help with all of the above.

Keep the food costs down by meal planning and not wasting food.

To save at least six months salary as a back up in case life goes tits up. All of our savings were wiped out during lockdown so we need to start over again.

I also want to take my children abroad as they’re never been so that’s my second financial goal.

Keep paying into savings regularly, even if it's not a huge amount

I've set up a Starling account with savings pots and the money is transferred as soon as I've been paid, so I don't see it. I managed to pay for most of Christmas from the Christmas pot 😁

Continue to use, and pay off, my credit card so that my credit rating stays excellent. I hadn't realised that it would make a difference. After working for years to rebuild my credit rating I don't want it to drop again.

Eat from the freezer in January.
Don't buy any meat in February.

Plan ahead for the Council Tax 'free'months in February and March - save it, don't plan to spend it.

No spend days as often as possible

@Sergio11 I used to be like you and spend what little I'd saved. Then a few yrs ago, I set up a standing order to pay £25 pcm into premium bonds each month. I've nowsaved just under £2k because its a hassle to get the money out to spend so it's locked in!

This works for me and I've also saved £500 in a regular saving account. My mum has the passbook for it so I can't spend it. This is for emergencies and I plan to add more to it this year.

My aim for 2023 is to pay my mortgage off (have approximately 5K left) and also to get up to 30K in premium bonds. I currently have 23K so this is probably unrealistic unless I win a fair bit each month.

Save approx. 5k for my maternity leave.
Keep building my saving pots
Not buying make up products when I still have some at home to use up, even though it might be tempting to try something new. One out, one in.

Pay off my mortgage! My fixed rate expires at the end of September and if I keep other expenditure sensible between now and then I should have enough saved to pay it off (I already pretty much do have enough to pay off what the balance will be at that point, but need to not dip into it and I'd like to still have some emergency fund left rather than using every penny of it). Even if I can't quite do it by 30 September I should be close enough to clear it before the end of the year with three more monthly payments.

For those who are a few grand short of mortgage pay off, are you better off getting 0% cc or some other short term borrowing to pay off to avoid expensive set up fees for a tiny remortgage?

I paid off my dmp in November 2022. The relief is amazing.

This year I am doing the 52 week challenge.

I won't remortgage, I'll just go onto the SVR if I need to as it will be short enough and for a small enough account that the extra interest will be minimal. I have considered using a credit card as a bit of buffer though if I need to run my emergency fund a bit light for a few months.

@AriettyHomily that's amazing. Well done.

I'm interested in this too. Can you even get another mortgage for say £5000 ?