A New Year means a new start for many, and is a great time to give our finances a close look to see where we can make better use of our money.

January is a great time to plan for the future and an opportunity to review your existing investments and pensions and make sure they are still doing what you want them to do for you.  Are your protection arrangements up to date and are you and your family properly protected?  Have you reviewed your Will recently? Will your pension plans still give you the income you need to live a life of leisure when you stop work?  Is your Investment portfolio still invested in funds that are performing well?

These are a number of the questions you will want to ask an adviser when you see him or her.

But they are not the only questions. As well as looking at your investment and protection arrangements January is a great time to review the way you spend money to make sure that you are not paying over the odds for the credit cards you use or any personal loans. It is also a good time to make sure your regular expenditure - like energy bills, phone and broadband and TV and computer contracts are all as effective as they can be for you. One of our biggest outlays is normally our mortgage and now might be a good time to make sure you are on the best deal and lowest interest rate available.

But it’s the longer term strategy you adopt with your savings that should be at the front of your mind at the start of this year.

If you haven’t given any thought to how best to invest the spare cash you have at the end on the month, or the money that you have built up that is lying in the bank generating very little in the way of interest, then now is the time to do it.

If you have made plans in the past but not kept them up to date, or not reviewed them for a while, we would be happy to help you review what you have, where it is and confirm if it is working in the best way possible for you.

If you haven’t already done so then make 2017 the year you are good to yourself and start to plan for your future. If you have an old plan in place this is a good time to have a full review to make sure that it will still allow you to do the things you want to do, when you want to do them.

McCrea Financial Services have extensive experience with our clients undertaking a full review of existing arrangements or creating ways to plan and restructure your existing position.  If you would like to arrange a no-obligation first meeting free of charge please email us to make an appointment or call us on 0141 572 1340 to get a time set up and see about making 2017 the year you get your financial planning in place.