Money 7 Good Resolutions For 2023
2023 begins and it is time to think about making good financial resolutions for your money in 2023. In a context of inflation, decline in purchasing power and recession, good 2023 resolutions will have every interest in not being limited when resuming sport or increasing reading time. A few simple measures can indeed allow you to take control of your money and regain healthy finances.
Discover 7 concrete, easy-to-implement ideas that will allow you to save money, improve your personal finances, and start building wealth.
Save enough
It is absolutely essential to save part of your income every month. It is often recommended to set aside 15% of your income. But depending on your income, this percentage may vary slightly. So, if you earn less than 1,800 euros per month, you can put aside around 10% for example. If you earn more than 10,000 euros per month, you will be able to put aside at least 25% of your income.
It is essential, from the first income, to get into the habit of saving part of the money earned each month. These savings should obviously not remain in your current account. The money set aside should be placed in different investments depending on how you use it.
Expect the unexpected
Part of your savings must be transferred to a guaranteed capital investment in order to build up precautionary savings which will be used to pay for any unforeseen expenses. It is certainly not possible to anticipate everything, and many expenses are necessarily unforeseen (garage worker, plumber, locksmith, etc.), but it is possible to provide an envelope intended to pay them.
If you haven't already, setting up an emergency fund in 2023 should be on your list of good resolutions. For example, you can place the equivalent of 3 to 6 months of expenses in a Livret A or LDDS account, these two regulated savings accounts whose rate was increased in 2022 should see their return boosted again in February 2023 .
Do not buy anything on credit
If unforeseen expenses must be anticipated, the same is of course true for current or more exceptional but predictable expenses. Savings books can also be used to put money aside to be able to finance all of your expenses without ever having to resort to credit, except of course in the case of a property purchase. Consumer credit is one of the worst enemies of your wallet. If possible, it will always be in your interest to save the sums intended to finance your purchase in a guaranteed capital investment and to wait until you have collected the necessary amount to buy your new computer or your new car, for example. So give up on consumer credit and favor Livret A, the rate of which was doubled in 2022 and should rise again in 2023.
Close dormant accounts
It is common to have several current accounts or joint accounts in different banks to benefit from the advantages of several banking establishments. For example, you can have an account in the bank in which you have your investments (life insurance, PEA, securities account, etc.) as well as an account in the bank with which you took out your property loan.
But be careful not to multiply accounts unnecessarily. It will often be much more advantageous to keep only one or two current accounts maximum because holding numerous accounts may prove too complicated to manage and particularly expensive with a thousand charges made up of account maintenance fees, costs related to payment methods, etc.
Close your bad investments
Do you have an investment that cost you money or delivered a return far below what you could expect? Maybe it's time to close it. If you have life insurance exclusively invested in euro funds with anemic returns, perhaps it is time to get rid of it. The same goes for mutual fund shares which did not live up to your expectations. Generally speaking, once the average investment return is much higher than what you earn on your investment, it is probably time to make a change. If for example, you own a euro fund that showed a 2023 return of less than 1.3% (the average observed for all euro funds), or if for example, your yield SCPI offered you a return of 3 in 2023 % while the average is slightly above 4%, if a fund has performed below that of its benchmark index for several years, sell it! You will thus be able to recover cash to position yourself for new, more profitable investments.
Set up an investment plan
To invest successfully in the financial markets and add value to capital over time, it is best to invest for the long term by entering the markets very gradually. On the one hand, you will be able to invest part of your savings every month, automatically, without even having to think about it and in a painless way. On the other hand, by investing very regularly over a long period, you smooth out the risk and avoid investing at a higher level as may be the case if you invest all at once. In addition, by investing over the long term, you will be able to take full advantage of the attractiveness of the stock market. According to the latest study by the Institut d'Epargne Foncière et Immobilière, at the end of 2023, stocks returned on average and each year 7.9% over 10 years and 9% over 30 years.
Be careful to put in place a clear and coherent investment plan when setting up your scheduled payments. You will not only have to define how much you are going to invest and how often, but also the assets in which you wish to invest (ETFs, shares, UCITS, etc.) while respecting the essential rules of diversification (notably monetary, sectoral and geographical).
Try new investments
Do you want to open a securities account to invest directly in US stocks? Do you want to invest in cryptos and think that the current bear market represents a good opportunity? Would you like to invest in real estate and are eyeing SCPIs? Are you thinking about the PER to prepare for your retirement by reducing your taxes
