75% want to starting reviewing their financial fitness in the coming year

HITTING the gym is not the only New Year’s Resolution preoccupying people this year, as three out of four say they also want to address the fitness of their finances.

But like all the best January intentions, this one could prove elusive as one in three people say they currently never review their personal finances or do so less than once a year.

The findings, from a survey commissioned by the National Consumer Agency (NCA), show money has been very much on the public’s mind.

It found 75% regarded it as fairly important or very important to review their personal finances at this time of year while 58% had specific goals in mind with 35% resolving specifically to budget better during the coming year and 23% saying they were determined to save more.

Almost half (48%) said they feared either not having enough money to meet their day-to-day expenses in 2012 or insufficient put away to cover unexpected costs that might arise.

Ann Fitzgerald, chief executive of the NCA, said the findings highlighted consumers’ very real concerns about their finances, but also showed they wanted to take more control.

However, with just 11% saying they sit down with their bills and statements and review their incomings and outgoings on a weekly basis and only 27% doing it each month, help might be needed to turn the intentions into actions.

Ms Fitzgerald encouraged people who found the prospect of tackling their finances daunting to use the NCA’s website which has an online tool, the Economiser, to help them get to grips with their income and expenditure.

The findings are backed up by a survey commissioned by EBS, which found a similar degree of ambiguity about personal finances. While money was on the majority’s mind, only 18% said they would start the new year with a very thorough review of their financial situation.

A further 36% said they would make a general plan but 45% said they had no plans to develop a household budget for the year.

Meanwhile, about 63% of people planned to cut their clothing spending in the year ahead. This was followed by mobile phones, holidays, groceries and electricity.And 29% said they intended saving for something specific with holidays, cars, education fees, home improvements, weddings and new houses being the top goals in descending order of preferences.

Perhaps most optimistic of all were the 2% who said they were saving for the European Championships.