As the new fiscal year approaches, it’s time to make some good financial resolutions

There are only a couple of days next week left to open an ISA to take advantage of the full tax year, but there are also some general financial tips worth noting

It is Easter and that is what most people in Britain are thinking about, but in five days it is also something else: the end of the financial year. Just as a new calendar year is the time for making good resolutions, so too should the weekend before the new fiscal year be a good time to sort out one’s finances.

There are only a couple of days next week when there is still time to take out an ISA, but what I am suggesting is something much broader. It is that a few decisions, quite small in themselves and ideally taken when people are reasonably young, can utterly transform their financial situation in later life. We give lots of thought to relatively trivial decisions, such as where to go on holiday or what car to buy, but much less on how to become financially secure.

There are some barriers that people have to get over.

One, very relevant right now, is gender: not only that women are on average paid less than men but also they are less likely to invest money even though they seem to be better at picking investments. My colleague Rachael Revesz has written a thoughtful column on this subject.

Another barrier is that there are a lot of sharks in the investment business, particularly when it comes to pensions, as the periodic scandals remind us. This is true – but that surely is all the more reason to pay a bit more attention to pensions rather than ignoring them and hoping the money will turn up at retirement.

Then there is the idea that providing for people’s old age ought to be the job of the state, hence why we pay National Insurance. My response to that is when we pay into National Insurance we are paying for the existing generation of pensioners, not a future one. We can have no idea what the government will be like in 30 or 40 years’ time, and the only sensible thing to assume is that we must provide for ourselves.

If you accept this then there are very simple guidelines on what to do. Of course the detail changes with personal circumstances, and exhortations by financial journalists to do this, that or the other can be irritating. But here are my top three...

One. Saving for a pension carries such huge financial benefits that it should be a top priority. The fact that for most people in the private sector an employer will chip in, coupled with the tax advantages, makes this a no-brainer. Depending on the extent to which a contribution is matched, and your marginal tax rate, you could be buying 10 apples for the price of four. Even if you are only gaining basic relief, you are buying 10 for the price of eight. Tax legislation will be chopped and changed by successive governments but some sort of incentive will remain.

Two. Buy a home. The argument here is not about house prices, which may in the short and medium term go down as well as up, but rather about enforced saving. Paying the mortgage is a form of discipline that brings benefits in other ways. You have somewhere to live, and having an asset gives options in other ways.

Three. Spreading risk is always wise, but shares, on a long view, are the best investment. So build up a portfolio of them. An ISA is a good way to do so. If you don’t believe this, read the annual analysis of the performance of different asset classes by the London Business School and Credit Suisse. It goes back over a century, looking at different asset classes in different countries, and gives a clear message for anyone interested in building wealth.

There are many more things people should do and not do, and it becomes tedious to preach: we all know that we should spend less on buying coffees or booze. But the detail doesn’t matter. A new financial year should be a new start to get the big things right. Good fortune.