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Financial Resolutions For The Lazy

When it comes to making money, it's a good idea to start early - ideally, by adopting good habits in early adulthood. And what better time is there to begin your good habits than at the start of the year? Here are four financial resolutions that anyone should be able to meet!

1. Pay off your debt faster

If you don't pay off your credit or store card in full every month, you could be paying annual interest of up to 32%. And, if you're only paying minimum monthly repayments each month, say, 3%, it could take you up to up to forty years to pay off a debt of just £1,600. Crikey!

Your lazy New Year's resolution begins by deciding how fast you want to pay off this debt. Let's say you want to be debt-free in two years, which means that you need to pay off your debt at, say, 5% a month. So, set up a monthly standing order or Direct Debit for this amount - send it on payday, when your finances are strongest. £100 a month would clear a debt of £2,000 in around two years. Job done!

Find better plastic in our Credit Card centre.

2. Start saving automatically

Most people save in dribs and drabs, putting what they can afford into a savings account if they have a few spare pounds at the end of the month. It's far more effective to save automatically, taking money from your bank account as soon as you've been paid, and then living on the remainder.

For example, I've saved £1,200 for my daughter over the last year, simply by snatching £100 a month from my bank account on the first of the month. I used a regular-saving account that pays the highest rates of interest to savers who save twelve consecutive monthly payments.

Check out the great accounts in our Savings centre.

3. Give your pension a boost

If you've joined a company pension scheme, usually you'll contribute a percentage of your pay each month in order to remain a member. In some cases, employers offer to match your contributions. So, for example, if you put in 5%, your company will match this by donating a further 5%, making 10% in all. (Actually, thanks to help from the taxman, your 5% can cost as little as 3% of your take-home pay.)

Next year, why not take advantage of your employer's generosity and pay a little more each month into your pension? Even if your company doesn't match your contributions, it's still worth adding money to your pension pot in the form of additional voluntary contributions (AVCs).

These extra pension payments are easy to arrange, as the money is taken directly from your pay and will appear on your payslip. It's quite a nice feeling to see this money build up over the year. Thanks to handouts from the taxman and my employer, each £1 that I pay into the Fool scheme turns into £2.30 on day one. Nice!

4. Become a stock-market investor

There are two great myths about investing in shares. The first is that you need a lot of money to become a stock-market investor. That's not the case, because you can invest in a simple, flexible, low-cost index tracker (a fund that tracks a particular market or set of shares) with as little as £20 a month. The second myth is that the stock market is too risky for most people. While it's true that it does go up and down dramatically from year to year, it has marched upwards since 1918 at an average annual growth rate of 11% a year.

Over long periods, patient investors stand to make superior returns from the stock market. Again, make these payments automatic by investing a set amount every month by standing order or Direct Debit. Putting a tax-free ISA wrapper around your money will keep the taxman at bay. It's the lazy way to get richer!

More: Be good to yourself next year: get a 0% credit card, a superior savings account and a tax-free ISA.