Three-quarters of financial new year's resolutions have already failed

Why sticking to your big financial pledges is so hard and how to succeed

Did you accidentally buy that takeaway coffee you promised you wouldn’t? (Getty/iStock)

You slipped and accidentally bought that takeaway coffee/coat/car/holiday.

Your big plans to save more and spend less in 2019, made a little more than two months ago, are already dust.

If you lasted this long, you’ve actually done reasonably well. The infamous “quitters’ day”, the date in the year we’re most likely to give up our new year’s resolutions, was way back in the second week of January.

But by now almost three-quarters of Britons have already failed to keep to their financial aims for the year, according to a survey of more than 2,300 people.

And while health, fitness and financial resolutions are the most common kinds of promises to make at the end of December each year, less than half of us have yet reneged on the health and fitness ones.

So what is it about cash commitments in particular – made at any time of year – that make us more likely to fail?

Unrealistic ambitions

With spiralling personal debt levels, falling savings rates and rent and mortgage costs that are completely out of kilter with incomes, we’re painfully aware of the need to be as financially robust as possible.

That awareness is one of the reasons we tend to think big about what we want to achieve.

A study, by discount aggregator Voucher Codes Pro, found more than a third of us set these January goals to get ourselves out of debt.

Another third wanted to save more money for the future – be that a big ticket item, a holiday or a home.

The best routes to achieving our goals seem obvious. We’ve all heard of the remarkable amounts we can save by cutting out every single bought coffee we’d even consider purchasing for a whole year, for example.

But with 82 per cent of resolution-makers trying to stick to at least two different financial pledges at once, the resolutions most likely to fail include saving a set amount each month and not using any form of credit at all.

These are significant aims that, crucially, are reliant on a huge change in everyday behaviour.

Rewiring ourselves suddenly, in the final hours of the festive season or at any time of year, is a big ask and the psychological consequences of failure may even fuel greater money worries in the future.

Though three-fifths of us are determined to try to get back on the wagon, a fifth will throw in the towel completely after the first attempt, reverting back to the patterns and decision-making that prompted them to make drastic changes in the first place.

Research from loan aggregator Freedom Finance suggests that it takes three attempts to successfully complete a new year’s resolution and that almost two in every five people have never been successful in theirs.

Not just for Christmas

But this isn’t solely about willpower. Any aspirations to save or pay off a specific amount each month, especially if those totals are plucked from thin air without a budget to base the numbers on, rarely take into account the unexpected costs that will inevitably arise.

If you think you could scrape together £50 a month to stash away but that includes every spare penny available after only basic living costs, it only takes the microwave to break or even your wallet to be stolen and your chances of meeting your total are instantly dashed.

In fact, the very act of making a resolution ends up costing us an average of more than £4,600 a year, Freedom Finance found, with diet plans, home improvements and starting up that dream business sucking up some of the largest amounts of cash.

Keep track

Achieving those big cumulative effects is as much about keeping tabs on your cash as changing your approach to it.

Before deciding on any resolutions examine your finances in fine detail. Cut out the deadwood of unused subscriptions and uncompetitive costs for services such as energy, insurance and your TV or mobile contract before you do anything else.

Even if you’ve managed to kick the daily cappuccino habit, if the money isn’t immediately syphoned off and your spending elsewhere is unclear, you still won’t have much to show for it even if you do stick to your word.

Make a regular note of how much your resolutions are really delivering and slot that cash away separately.

Aim small

A year’s worth of refused coffees might hypothetically put hundreds or even thousands of pounds back into your account but fork out for that caffeine hit just once and you’re already on an emotional downer as the new year’s hype fades away.

“A year is a long time,” says Nick Green of financial advice platform Unbiased.com. “Make it your resolution to set yourself small, regular goals over each week or month.

“Award yourself a small prize for achieving each one and tell your partner or a close friend about your goals so they hold you to them.”

Keep swimming

“Having failed at a new year’s resolution doesn’t mean that you have to throw the towel in and wait until 2020 to try again,” says George Charles, spokesperson for Voucher Codes Pro, also known as MoneySavingHeroes, says.

“There’s no time like the present. We’re all going to slip up along the way, but what matters is that you make a conscious effort to do better with your finances for the sake of your future.”