How to Get Richer in 2025: Six Top Money Experts Reveal Their Seven New Year’s Resolutions – and the Tricks They Use to Achieve Their Financial Goals

The motivation to boost your finances in January is at its highest – but if you also take our brilliant expert tips to heart, you can keep them in order all year round.

Here, Money Mail talks to six leading finance and money experts about how they plan to cut back and save themselves by 2025.

Set yourself a goal to save €500 per day

If you find it a chore to carry out your financial administration in small steps, do it all in one day – and set yourself a goal.

“If I have a slow weekend in January, I’ll set myself a target to get, say, £500 back and I’ll work towards saving that,” says Brian Byrnes, head of personal finance at moneybox, the savings and investing app .

‘I do this by canceling my telephone subscription, selling some unused items and – dare I say – some unwanted Christmas presents.

‘By doing it all at once, it doesn’t seep into your daily life.’

Byrnes admits he can only do it once a quarter, but he explains that it’s better than doing it every week because “financials can really drain your energy levels.”

“In my notes app on my phone, I always have a list of things I need to do,” he says. “It’s usually non-urgent issues that I let build up and set aside time to get through them.”

Dry January savings can be deposited into an account

Giving up alcohol is one of the most common resolutions when people try to make healthier choices after a boozy Christmas. To keep yourself motivated – and improve your savings – you can put your savings in a high-paying account or even a pension.

Tracy Crookes, financial planner at Quilter Cheviot, says: ‘Taking part in Dry January is a great idea for health reasons, but it can also be an opportunity to save money.

‘Try calculating your average monthly expenditure on alcohol. Then put that amount in a savings account.

“You might be surprised at how much you can save, providing a financial boost for the year.”

Four pints a week at an average price of £5 will cost you £80 a month.

‘Throw in a few takeaways and you’re looking at £110 in expenses for the month.

If you put that into an easy-access savings account with an average annual interest rate of 4.5%, you would have £114.95 by the end of the year. If you avoided alcohol and takeaways all year round, you would save £1,320 and accrue £59.40 in interest by this time next year. You can put your Dry January savings into your pension, which if saved for 38 years will give you £12,168 based on a 5% investment return, after fees. If you saved the same money every month for 38 years, you would have £149,400, says Hargreaves Lansdown.

Have your children sign a contract

Natasha Etherton, director of financial planning at Evelyn Partners, says one of her biggest resolutions is to help herself with budgeting by making sure her children understand the value of money. By setting firm boundaries for them, her discretionary spending is less likely to spiral out of control by buying them whatever they want.

“It seems harder and harder as the years go by, especially in teenagers – so it needs an annual reset,” she says.

‘In the first week of January we discuss what chores they will do to earn their pocket money.

‘I will buy them everything they need but this does not include the £44 TikTok mascara or gaming vouchers.’

Setting intentions is all well and good, but making sure you stick to them is the hardest part, so Etherton makes sure her children are aware that their allowance is conditional.

‘We make them sign a contract, with the understanding that missing homework or not completing chores means a deduction from the monthly pocket money. Fortunately, they have not yet discovered that these contracts are not legally binding,” she says.

Link weight loss to financial goals

If you’re determined to both lose weight and save money this year, money blogger Lynn Beattie, aka Mrs Mummypenny, suggests linking them together to kill two birds with one stone and improve your motivation.

She explains: ‘For every kilo lost, £10 goes into the savings account and so on. This will depend on a weekly weighing.

“Similarly, link your step count to savings.

‘Personally I aim for 15,000 steps a day, so if I can achieve 105,000 steps a week I’ll add another £10 in savings.

‘Based on a weight loss of 2 pounds per week, there is the potential to save around £100 per month, adding up to £1,200 in a year – plus there are plenty of health incentives.’

Have a financial date night

Brian Byrnes, from Moneybox, swears by a financial date night with his partner.

“It can be difficult at times to get on the same financial page as your partner and we know that money problems can be a major contributor to separations and divorces,” he says.

“So it’s a good idea to take every emotion out of those conversations and make them fun.

‘Buy a bottle of wine, put on some music and start talking about your individual and collective goals. You can also go through all your subscriptions and see if you can save some by merging your accounts. The goal is to make sure you’re having a dedicated conversation, rather than a conversation at 9 p.m. on a random Tuesday when you’re tired.”

Byrnes and his partner have a financial date night every two months, and he explains that he’s “definitely seen the benefit of it.” He adds, “Saying our financial goals out loud to someone else also greatly increases your responsibility.

It’s also a good thing to do in the dark, cold nights of January and February.

‘Once you have discussed what it is all for and what you are working towards – holiday, anniversary, retirement – ​​those months become a little easier.’

If one person is less enthusiastic about the couple, Byrnes suggests they choose the location or how you go about it to make it fun for both.

Passwords and bank details

Carla Morris, senior financial planner at asset manager RBC Brewin Dolphin, has a plan to make it easier to stick to her resolution to shop less by 2025. She is going to detox her phone to control her shopping habits.

“Tapping our cards or Apple Pay has become second nature,” she says.

“Digital currency simply doesn’t provide the same insight into financial spending that counting physical money used to provide.

‘After the New Year holidays, I want to spend less, so deleting all shopping apps from my phone is my first step.

‘For extra protection against high expenses, I never save passwords when I log in to a website.

“That creates another obstacle to impulsive spending, which can be just enough to make me pause and reconsider when I’m browsing in my spare time.”

Arranging a will is an easy win

It may seem a little morbid to think about death during the holidays, but wills are usually overlooked and are a quick and easy win in January.

David Gibb, financial planner at Quilter Cheviot, says: ‘It’s amazing how many people say making a will is on their to-do list, but they never get it done. People should make the decision to complete this crucial part of financial planning.”

Sorting out a will is a fairly painless process and you don’t necessarily need to hire a lawyer to write one if you are confident that you can draft one properly.

That said, lawyers are regulated, so you have more protection if something goes wrong and they can help you avoid missteps.

While you’re at it, David recommends arranging a power of attorney, which allows you to appoint someone to make decisions about your health and finances if you can’t do so yourself.

“It’s the practical safety net that most of us don’t think about until it’s too late,” he says.

‘Obtaining your will and power of attorney may not have the same bragging rights as abstaining from alcohol for a month, but they are powerful and practical acts that will help your family and yourself when times get tough.’