Sorting your finances doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time to put a plan in place, implement it, and let the benefits flow through. Here are five ideas to make a fresh start with your finances in 2024 – one block at a time.

Read on: If you’ve found these tips helpful, you might also like our article in The Journal on what’s in store for your finances this year.

Take stock of your finances in 2024

Last year saw some major moves in the financial markets.  As we’ve discussed here, many assets ended significantly up on their opening value at the start of the year – but it was far from a smooth journey.

Investors needed patience, and a plan they could have confidence in sticking to.  That’ll be true for 2024 as well.  Now’s an ideal time to re-evaluate investment and pension plans, critique your fund choices, and maybe your appetite for risk too.

How Moneycube can help: in 2023, we moved to increase exposure to high-yield stocks within equity portfolios, while for other customers we supported them in assessing the impact of ‘higher for longer’ interest rates on their long-term plans.

If you’d like our help to review your investments, just let us know.

Combine pensions from your old jobs

Do you know how much your pensions are worth?  Do you know where they are, what they cost, and how they are invested?

Most of us are far from clear on these questions.  Yet that’s easy to change.

Simplify your retirement plans, obtain ongoing advice, and take control of pensions from your old jobs, or a job you left in 2023, by consolidating them with a single provider.

How Moneycube can help: we helped one recent customer move a €170k pension to a new provider, reducing their ongoing costs by 33%, and providing a one-off uplift in the value of their pension of over €2.5k.

Our pension consolidation centre has all you need to know.

Benchmark your current pension

It’s January – so your tax band has just been raised. That has implications for your income, and your pension. If you’re a top-rate taxpayer, €2k more of your income is now taxed at the 20% rate, saving you €400.

If you have a significant birthday this year (one ending in 0 or maybe 5), then you can claim tax relief on more of you

And we’re all getting older: is your pension fund choice right for where you are in career and time to retirement? Your pension has a lot of moving parts, so give it a service now and then.

How Moneycube can help: if you’ve lost contact – or faith – with your pension advisor, we can give your pension a health check.

Plan for the unexpected

We know now how quickly things can change.  What would happen you and your dependents financially if you could no longer work?

If you and others depend on your income, you probably need some protection to cover the gap if something happened to you.

How Moneycube can help: we can arrange cover critical illness and life assurance cover, insuring against these risks, whether as part of your pension plan, or on a standalone basis.

Get in touch if we can help.

Consider your cash position

It’s clear that bank interest rates are going to be low, or even negative, for the foreseeable future.  If you want to see your money grow, you’ll need to consider investing it.

So if you have a significant lump sum – more than, say, 6 months’ income, sitting in cash in the bank, it is likely worth looking at putting it to work for you, to generate wealth and stay ahead of inflation over the medium term.

How Moneycube can help: we can help you invest a lump sum, whatever its size and shape.

We can also put a regular direct debit plan in place for you, with automated monthly investments into a professionally managed investment fund in line with your requirements for risk and reward.

From multi-asset funds which give your money exposure to many opportunities for growth in a single fund, to large bespoke portfolios in line with your investment preferences, Moneycube can navigate the investment world for you in 2024 and beyond.