Why your finances don’t need a new year make over

January feels like it demands action, doesn't it?

The news is relentless. Markets are jittery. Everyone's fed up with dry January. Your inbox is full of ‘New Year, New You’ tips - improve this, optimise that, transform everything. And so you might be wondering: shouldn't I be doing something to improve my finances right now?

Well, actually, the most financially savvy thing you can do this January is... nothing at all.

I know this feels counterintuitive

We're hardwired to want to take action, especially when the world feels uncertain and when global events start to move quickly. But what’s already happened – and continues to happen behind the scenes – is that we've already stress-tested your financial plan. Multiple times. For various scenarios - including catastrophic ones.

This is what real financial planning actually is - it's not reactive scrambling when things feel wobbly. It's having a robust plan that's been built to withstand the wobbles before they even happen. Your plan already accounts for difficult years. Market volatility. Economic uncertainty. Even those "What if everything goes wrong at once?" scenarios that might be keeping you up at night.

So while it might feel like you should be frantically panic-selling, making dramatic changesor doing something, your plan is quietly doing exactly what it's designed to do: working.

The Dry January birthday club

Let’s take a moment to acknowledge how bleak January can feel! It's still dark by 4pm, the weather doesn’t know what to do with itself and everyone's deflated after Christmas. And spare a thought for those poor souls with January birthdays (including my husband!) trying to convince people that celebrating in the dreariest month of the year is a good idea.

But what not many people talk about is the fact that there is something quietly wonderful about the period after the tree comes down. When you can finally lean into the cold and dark without feeling like you're supposed to be on all the time. When you can do tiny, quiet things instead of big, performative ones.

Your finances can have that kind of January too.

Being proactive without doing anything

Just because the best course of action is inaction, doesn't mean you can't be proactive. In fact, being proactive right now looks like this:

Know your numbers. Then still don't necessarily do anything with them. Just know them. Understand where you are. Check you're comfortable with it. Pour yourself a glass of wine (or whatever you're having instead) and make some notes.

Think of this as the financial equivalent of the treadmill at the gym - you're moving forward by staying in place. You're doing the work without making dramatic changes. You're being intentional rather than reactive.

Your actually-doable January financial checklist

If you absolutely need to feel like you're doing something (and most of us do!), here's your permission slip to spend half an hour thinking about your finances:

1. Review, don't react. Look at your numbers. Notice them. Acknowledge how you feel about them. Then close the tab.

2. Check in with your goals. Not the should - the wants. What do you actually want your money to do for you this year? Not what Instagram says you should want. Not what worked for your neighbour. What feels right for you?

3. Notice what's changed. Has anything shifted in your life that your financial plan should know about? New job? Different priorities? Changed circumstances? Make a note.

4. Ask yourself: what would feel good? Some people book holidays. Some create vision boards. Some enjoy the quiet satisfaction of doing absolutely nothing. What version of financial planning feels aligned with who you actually are?

5. Tune in, not out. The best antidote to ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ pressure is tuning into what you genuinely want. When you do that with everything else - how you spend your time, what you prioritise, what you let go - you'll naturally tune into what you want financially too.

The permission you might need

Blue Monday has come and gone. Three weeks of the year have already disappeared. And if you're feeling behind because you haven't revolutionised your entire financial life yet... you're not behind. You're exactly where you should be.

In the olden days (by which I mean, before the internet, when we we’re expected to be ‘on’ all the time), people actually embraced January as a time to rest. To be still. To let the quiet in.

Your finances can have that too. They don't need to be completely overhauled because we've tipped into a new calendar year. They need to be thoughtfully maintained, yes. But maintained doesn't mean dramatic.

Of course, if you've done your half-hour check-in and something genuinely does need tweaking - or if you simply want to talk through what's on your mind - that's exactly what I’m here for. Sometimes the most proactive thing you can do is have a conversation about whether action is actually needed. In uncertain times, clarity often matters more than speed.

And sometimes the most valuable thing I can tell you is: your plan is working. Keep going. You're doing brilliantly.

Even in January.

If you’d like to check your numbers or talk through your financial plan, please get in touch - no dramatic January resolutions required.