Looking back, looking forward: Reflecting on your financial journey this year

Are you thinking about your financial journey this year? The new year is a perfect time to reflect on your financial year and think about what you have achieved…and what your goals should be for the new year.

Why Reflecting On Your Financial Year Matters

Self-reflection supports financial wellness and financial wellness supports mental well-being. In fact, financial journaling through the year can help you make better decisions, but even just end of year financial reflection can help.

Understanding where you are in relation to the overall economy and trends can help you decide if you are budgeting properly and make adjustments for the new year. Per UK Finance, the third quarter of 2025 saw growth in spending and borrowing, with mortgage arrears falling. However, savings growth slowed and most people are finding the economy uncertain. People are rebuilding savings, spending less on non-essentials, and concerned about inflation. If you are feeling that way, you are not alone.

At the personal level, reflection can help you spot your mistakes before they get worse, and feel more confident in your financial future. So, what should you review?

Step-By-Step Financial Review for 2025

Here’s our suggested step-by-step to properly reflect on your progress:

1. Budget performance. Are you spending within your means? How does your income look related to your spending? Is your income likely to improve in 2025, or stay flat?
2. Saving habits. Did you meet your savings goals? If not, why not? There might be a good reason for it, such as an unexpected home repair expense. But now is a great time to look at your saving discipline and see how it can be improved.
3. Debt management progress. If you have consumer debt, did you manage to get it down? Is there any chance of paying off more on your mortgage? You don’t need perfection, but if you have extra cash, turning it towards reducing debt is great in the long term.
4. Pension contributions and retirement planning. Are you making the right contributions to ensure a comfortable retirement?
5. Unexpected costs vs emergency funds. On the topic of those unexpected costs, how are your emergency funds looking? Do you need to redirect some money to top them up before anything else happens?

Reviewing your money can be complicated. There are some tools you can use to help.

Tools to Review Your Money

We have some tools we recommend to help you put together the best financial review.

• MoneyHelper budgeting guides. MoneyHelper has a collection of guides that can help you in all kinds of situations. For example, they have a guide on how to handle high energy bills, advice on how to deal with irregular income, etc. They can help overall with budgeting insights in the UK.
• MoneyHelper savings guides. If you’re reviewing your savings habits, these guides can help you get started, meet goals, and save in ways that reduce your tax burden.
• The MaPS Budget Planner.  This is a free online tool that you enter all your income and spending into, and it helps you see whether you are budgeting properly. Do you have money left over? Are things tight?
• Our expenditure analysis worksheet. This is a free download and you can find it here.

The MoneyHelper budgeting and savings guides are the best help you can get from the Money and Pensions Service for financial wellbeing.

Understanding Your Financial Wellbeing in the UK

We already talked about trends. MoneyView 2025 is a UK personal finance review you can use to look at trends and metrics, see how you compare, and help you move forward with more information. You can download and read the entire report (47 pages), but here are some insights that might be useful:

• 1 in 5 people are borrowing money to pay bills or buy food.
• 14% of people in the UK need debt advice.
• 46% are not saving regularly, and 26% couldn’t pay an unexpected bill of £300.
• Financial resilience is lower overall, but small compared to the pressure on budgets.
• 37% of people surveyed, though, had high financial fitness.
• People paying a mortgage are less likely to struggle with their bills than renters.

If you aren’t struggling, then take a deep breath, but also know that you can do better.

Lessons from the Past Year

So, what have you learned from self-reflection and running the numbers. Ask yourself a few questions. What did you save? Where did you overspend? Did your financial confidence grow?

You may find that if you are seeing good numbers that your confidence shoots up. (This can also improve your overall wellbeing). But if you see less healthy numbers, you now have actionable things you can do.

For example, imagine you discover you are spending way too much at Costa. Cutting your habit down will help your budget right there, and is relatively easy.

Setting Financial Goals for the Next Year

Now, you can set some goals (which might be fewer visits to Costa). Make sure you cover the following areas:

• Monthly milestones for savings and debt reduction. Debt reduction should take priority if you have high interest consumer debt.
• Emergency funds. What do you want to top them up to?
• Pensions. Are you putting enough in?
• Investment basics. Investing can help, even if you don’t do much of it. Keep your portfolio broad so you are less impacted by sudden changes.

Behavioural Tips for Better Financial Habits

Lastly, think about your financial habits and how they tie in to your overall behaviour. Be realistic with your goals. If you failed a goal last year, look at why you did. You might need to lower your savings goal to something achievable, and then if you exceed it, you will feel better.

Be consistent. It’s better to set aside a small amount every month than a larger one before overspending. Think of the following:

• What am I spending money on that I don’t need or want? (Think of unused subscriptions)
• What do I really want that I need money for? Which of my habits bring true joy?
• What do I want my life to be like in retirement?
• What is my overall priority? Is it a house? College/University for the children? A once-in-a-lifetime holiday?

Engage with yourself and your money to move forward with goals that are focused on what you really want.

Key Resources & Further Reading

Check out these key resources to help you learn and do more:

1. MoneyHelper savings guide.
2. MoneyHelper budgeting guide.
3. Information about the MaPS budget planner.
4. MoneyView 2025 survey.
5. Money and Pensions Service website

You can also get help and advice from FH Manning Financial Services, especially if your financial situation is more complex. As you move into 2026, use financial reflection to improve your mental health and financial wellbeing and learn how to manage your money better and with more confidence.