A huge amount of the time we spend with our clients is spent building an understanding of your goals in life and developing a financial plan to help you achieve your objectives. A lot of attention goes into your retirement strategy, your investment approach and other such important areas.

One area we never forget about though is the other side of your financial picture – your expenditure. After all, this impacts your level of saving and investment in your future. This has come into sharp focus in 2020, particularly as we emerge from lockdown due to Covid-19. For some people, reviewing this makes sense as they have simply gone through a period of much lower spending than normal. For others who are facing a loss of job or a reduction in income, it is out of necessity. For everyone, there’s an opportunity to save more into the future.

Here are 10 areas which we believe are worth investigating to see if there are opportunities to reduce your monthly outgoings, whether out of necessity or to be able to spend more on the things you like…

1. Mortgage

An obvious place to start if your current mortgage rate is uncompetitive. There are a number of “switcher” deals out there that are attractive and worth investigating. While it is a bit of hassle to switch your mortgage, it can yield significant savings that will justify the effort. Of course switching your mortgage is likely only available if your income has continued at the required level. Talk to us about the potential for you to make savings here - quite a number of Lyons customers have made significant savings here!

2. Health Insurance and other insurances

Health insurance is one area where customer inertia really kicks in. As a result, too many people simply renew their health insurance policy without the supposed hassle of seeing if there are better or cheaper policies available. It is actually no hassle for you (we do all the work), and the savings can be very significant. Lyons are one of Ireland's leading health insurance specialists - give us a call and we'll take a look at your options. 

2. Credit cards

A really important one… If you have a balance outstanding on your credit card, you are probably paying anywhere from 13% p.a. to in excess of 20% p.a. on this balance, which makes it very challenging to reduce the balance. Look at options to switch to an alternative provider, some of who will offer you a period where no interest will be charged. This will hopefully buy you time to get rid of the outstanding balance. Credit cards are great… but only when they are paid off in full every month.

3. Energy bills

This one drives us mad! Energy companies have great deals for new customers, that are not automatically passed on to existing, loyal customers. They rely on us not bothering to shop around. Check out the deals available and be willing to switch. Comparison sites such as www.switcher.ie may help you to find a better deal. 

4. Phone & broadband

Similar to energy companies, telephone and broadband providers rely on the inertia of subscribers who don’t keep an eye out for better deals. Know when your phone and broadband contract periods have expired. And then start negotiating, either with your current provider or a new one. These services are very easy to switch. 

5. TV subscriptions

As the Coronavirus took hold around the world and countries went into lockdown, people turned to home entertainment in numbers. In the first quarter of 2020 alone, Netflix added 16 million subscribers and this growth probably continued in Quarter 2. Some of us also subscribe to Sky, Amazon Prime and other services. The question to keep asking yourself, particularly as restrictions ease is – are you still using the services? If not, ditch them.

7. Grocery shopping

This is one where savings can be made through a few simple actions. Don’t start planning meals by thinking, “what do we want for dinner?”, instead use what you have at home and eat the food you’ve already purchased. Before shopping, plan your meals and create a shopping list of what you need. Without a list, you are prey to every promotion on display in the supermarket. Then make sure to avail of special offers, loyalty programmes and vouchers that each can further reduce your bill. Finally close your eyes as you get to the tills, that’s where they target you to throw a few more items into your basket!

8. Memberships

Club memberships are great, when they are used. However if you’re not using them, how can you justify the continued spend? Are you using the gym enough or playing enough rounds of golf to justify the ongoing expense?

9. Subscriptions

Check through your bank and credit statements for all of those seemingly insignificant subscriptions that you pay for. Music streaming services, news media, other publications, in-app ongoing purchases – they all add up. If you’re using them regularly, great. If not, get rid of them.

10. Online shopping

Amazon was another big winner of the lockdowns across the globe. So too were the parcel return services. Lots of people bought lots of items that they subsequently returned or kept them and never used them. Online shopping is far too easy, and we all need to be really careful. Buy what you really need and avoid mindless surfing for impulse purchases.

There’s no silver bullet to making savings. However, by looking across a range of areas such as these, small savings when put together can really add up.

As economies around the world start to cautiously emerge from their various states of lockdown, people are also stepping back into the light albeit gingerly and carefully. Some shops and services are open for business again, others have a while to wait still. Some activities that involve mass gatherings such as sports events and concerts face a quite uncertain future for some time to come. 

The last few months have been a time of great uncertainty for all of us. Apart from the threat to our health, most people’s work lives have undergone significant changes. For some, this has been a very difficult period with businesses closed and jobs gone for a while, or in some cases for good. Others have experienced reduced income as a result of the Covid-19 restrictions. Some lucky people have not really been hit in the pocket; they have just had to adjust to a different way of working.

We’ve all had quite a bit of time to think, both about the present and also what the future might hold as the pandemic runs its course.

Our own world of work has changed hugely in these times. Apart from getting used to working remotely, our core role of meeting the needs of our clients has changed a lot too. We’ve been unable to carry out our usual face-to-face meetings and have adapted as quickly as we could to using the full range of other means of communicating with you, our clients – by telephone, email, online meetings, messages etc.  The silver lining on this cloud has been our ability to have some really insightful conversations with many of you.

A theme has emerged from these conversations – a re-evaluation of the importance of money in the big scheme of things today.

Now we are not for one moment suggesting that money is unimportant or that your personal finances don’t need to be carefully planned.  Money is always important, it’s just not the “be all and end all”. What the lockdown has taught us is the importance of everything else. When it comes to your money, you need to have a plan and then let it go and do its work, refining it as your circumstances and goals change.

However what we’ve observed in these different times is that many of our clients are no longer sweating the small stuff. We’ve really seen this in the different conversations we’ve had with you in recent weeks. Previously, short-term volatility in investment markets might have resulted in lots of worried conversations, sometimes panicked decisions that more often than not damage your long-term wealth. We have seen so little of this lately, even though markets have been volatile. Most of our clients have rightly viewed the recent market turbulence as a temporary blip in a long-term plan.

Instead the conversations have been about the more important challenges in life today, with these then naturally veering towards the financial impacts caused by these changes.

In every single conversation with you, the starting point has always been an enquiry about our health and that of our families. This has been so heartening and has shown us the importance of trusted relationships and community spirit. Conversations have typically then moved quite seamlessly on to how we’re all dealing with the restrictions, and the impact they are having on family lives.

Yes, Covid-19 has caused challenges. Health concerns, work, childcare, schooling and social restrictions appear to be topping the list. But we’ve seen people wherever possible viewing recent times with a “glass half full” attitude. Many clients have spoken about the importance of health and how thankful they are that their families have stayed well. You have spoken about the challenge, but also the benefits of working at home - no-one has mentioned that they miss commuting and working long hours away from your families. Many of us have rediscovered the benefits of a bit more time on our hands and the flexibility gained from working at home. The importance of getting out for a regular walk with the kids has featured in many conversations, also having a laugh and finding new ways to socialise as a family. Simple pleasures that cost very little.

There has been a sense that we’ve all simply been more present with our families.  This is what will live long in the memory as the situation eventually fades. Money can never replace this.

Not having enough money certainly causes worry. However for many of you, your mindset has changed significantly, your view of how much is enough is now different. That shiny new car or expensive holiday is a bit less important to many, instead “enough” is now more focused on experiences, health and togetherness. We’ve seen a greater focus on planning for the long-term, ensuring you’ve enough to really support your families and live your life, as opposed to material possessions.

If you have been impacted financially by the restrictions, structured financial planning will help you deal with the situation, as you can consider different potential scenarios in the future. Having a robust roadmap will give you increased confidence that you will emerge from your short-term challenges.

Have a financial plan and manage your money wisely. The money is not important in itself, instead view it as a means to free your mind and to let you enjoy the things you love doing.