How to Build a Financial Plan for a Better 2027
July 21, 2026
I made the video behind this article on my birthday, 21 July 2026. Rather than talk about myself, I wanted to give you something practical: a way to make 2027 a better financial year by starting the work before it arrives.
I’m not talking about finding one magical investment. I’m talking about understanding your position, creating a useful gap between income and spending, and putting that gap towards a clear goal. Alongside those ordinary habits, I also want you to consider one opportunity whose potential reward is much larger than the cost of trying it.
Read this once to understand the whole process, then come back with a pen and paper. The exercises are where the value sits. Watching another financial video, or reading another article, won’t change the numbers unless you do something with it.
You can also watch my complete financial planning video on YouTube.
Choose one goal that actually matters to you
Start with one ambitious but achievable financial goal. It might be clearing your consumer debt, saving a property deposit or building a meaningful investment account. Make it specific enough that you can tell whether you’ve achieved it.
Then connect it to why you care. If the goal is becoming debt-free, imagine the relief of those payments disappearing. If it is buying an investment property, imagine collecting the keys and knowing that you followed through on the work required.
That emotional connection matters to me because you’ll eventually face a choice between a short-term purchase and progress towards the goal. Saying no is easier when you know what you are saying yes to instead.
Write down the amount, the date and your reason. Then check whether the target is realistic from your starting position. An ambitious goal should make you change your behaviour, but it shouldn’t require impossible savings or an investment return you cannot control.
You don’t need to wait until January. Starting now gives you time to organise your finances, test your plan and make adjustments before the year you want to improve is already under way.
Put your real financial position on paper
In business, I think about both the profit and loss account and the balance sheet. You can use the same distinction at home without making the exercise complicated.
Income minus expenses tells you whether you create a surplus each month. Assets minus liabilities tells you what you have built over time. Earning a good salary and owning substantial net assets are not automatically the same thing.
For example, a home worth £300,000 belongs on the asset side. A £200,000 mortgage belongs on the liability side. The difference is £100,000 of equity before costs, rather than £300,000 of money available to spend.
Go through your bank statements and list income and expenses line by line. Include irregular costs such as annual insurance and car repairs by making a realistic monthly allowance. Otherwise, an apparently healthy surplus can disappear when an entirely predictable bill arrives.
Next, list assets at realistic values and every debt with its balance, interest rate and required payment. Separate accessible cash from pensions, property equity and possessions that would take time to sell. They may all have value, but they do different jobs.
That is your first exercise: one goal, one monthly income-and-spending list, and one list of what you own and owe. You need the real position, not the more comfortable version that lives in your head.
Make the gap between earning and spending bigger
Now look for expenditure that gives you little value. I’m not asking you to remove everything you enjoy. In the video, I contrasted £200 spent eating out with people you care about against £200 of forgettable takeaways.
You may decide the first is worth keeping and the second is money you would rather put towards your goal. The point is being intentional. A budget that makes life miserable is difficult to sustain, especially when your goal will take many months.
Total the changes and calculate a new monthly surplus. If your goal needs £1,000 a month and you have found £600, that is progress. It also leaves a specific £400 gap to solve.
Knowing the gap is much more useful than vaguely deciding to be better with money. You can now examine whether further cuts, higher earnings, a longer timetable or a different target would make the plan workable.
Be honest about what has actually changed. Cancelling one unused subscription can create a recurring saving. Selling a possession produces a one-off boost. Both help, but you shouldn’t count a one-off sale as permanent monthly income.
Choose one realistic way to earn more
There is a limit to how far you can reduce essential spending. Increasing income gives you another lever. For an employee, that might involve a salary discussion, more responsibility, a useful qualification or a move to a better-paid role.
You may also have a skill someone will pay for outside your main job. I would choose one realistic route first, rather than attempting seven side hustles because a video told you wealthy people have seven income streams.
I own a taxi company, and in the recording I used Friday and Saturday night driving as an example of additional earnings. The practical result depends on licensing, hours, demand, vehicle costs and tax. Treat it as an example from the business I know, rather than a guaranteed income available to everyone.
Write down five possibilities, then choose the one with the best combination of demand, fit and manageable costs. Work out what you could keep after expenses and tax, not simply what customers might pay you.
There is another useful source of cash: things you no longer use. When I moved out of my property in 2022, I sold a bike, an old sofa and fishing equipment, raising more than £5,000 in a little over two weeks. That was my experience, not a target everyone should expect to match.
List five possessions worth selling and put realistic values against them. The aim is to give unused assets a more useful job. Don’t sell something essential only to discover you must buy it back later.
Protect yourself before investing heavily
Before directing substantial money into investments, I want accessible cash that can absorb ordinary problems. The right amount depends on your circumstances, including job security, dependants and property commitments.
In the video I mentioned having four children. A household with responsibilities and variable income needs a different discussion from someone with a secure salary and few commitments. I wouldn’t impose the same cash target on both.
The purpose is to stop a broken car, a repair or an interruption to income becoming a crisis. It also reduces the chance that you must sell an investment at a bad moment because you have no other money available.
This doesn’t mean ignoring employer pension contributions while building a buffer. Check what your employer offers before changing contributions, because reducing them can mean losing employer payments. Your overall plan should account for those benefits as well as immediate cash needs.
Give expensive debt a clear repayment plan
For manageable consumer debts, I like the debt snowball: maintain required payments, focus extra money on the smallest balance, then move the freed-up payment to the next debt. Seeing accounts disappear can make the plan easier to stick with.
Paying the highest-interest debt first generally saves more interest if you make the same payments. That is the debt avalanche, and it can be the better choice for someone who will follow it consistently. My preference for the snowball is about behaviour and momentum, not denying the arithmetic.
Priority bills and arrears come first. Rent, mortgage payments and other obligations with serious consequences shouldn’t be pushed behind a small credit-card balance simply to get a quick win. If you can’t meet essentials or minimum payments, seek appropriate debt support before trying an aggressive repayment challenge.
My full guide to paying off debt explains the approach and the qualifications around the research discussed in the video. I wouldn’t turn a study about account closures into a promise that one method works best for everybody.
Start turning surplus income into assets
Once your cash position is sound and expensive debt is under control, decide how more of your earnings will build future wealth. A workplace pension is worth understanding, particularly where your employer contributes alongside you.
The government’s workplace pension contribution guidance explains how employee, employer and government contributions can work. Check your scheme’s rules and remember that pension money is intended for later life, so it cannot simply replace accessible savings.
A stocks and shares ISA may suit some longer-term investing goals. It is a tax wrapper, not an investment in itself; the assets you hold inside it determine the investment risk. A diversified fund can spread exposure across businesses, but its value can still fall.
Property is another route and has been a major part of how I built my wealth. The deposit, mortgage, tax, repairs and running costs must work together. Buying something merely because you can raise the deposit isn’t the same as buying a useful investment.
Write down which assets fit your goal and how much you can realistically commit each month. Avoid counting on capital growth to meet a short-term bill. If you are saving for a property purchase, my guide to building your first £100,000 looks at the relationship between saving and investing.
Create one opportunity with a larger possible upside
Alongside the foundations, consider something with a limited, affordable downside and a much larger possible reward. That is what I mean by asymmetric upside. It is not an instruction to gamble your savings on a long shot.
My YouTube channel was the example I used. I estimated the camera and lighting cost at under £1,500. The other major commitment is time, and there is no guarantee that people will watch. But a useful audience could create customers, opportunities and income over time.
A small service business can also begin as a controlled experiment. In the video I mentioned James at Vulpix Detailing, whom I coach. I described the business moving from a weekend hobby to around £6,000 monthly income within twelve months, and later more than £20,000 monthly revenue. Those are figures I reported from that example; revenue is not take-home profit or a typical result.
Choose one experiment, set a budget you can afford to lose and decide what evidence of demand you need before expanding. Count your time as a real commitment. The opportunity should add possibilities without putting the financial foundations at risk.
Review the plan every month
Set a recurring appointment with your own numbers. Compare income, expenses, debt balances and assets against your starting point. Then ask what needs changing during the next month.
You cannot control market returns or government decisions. You can influence whether you saved, reduced waste, pursued more income, paid down debt and completed the next useful step in your project. Track those actions as well as the results.
If you want help thinking through property’s place in that plan, book a free property strategy call. For further property education, you can explore Starter Club.
A better financial year usually comes from ordinary decisions repeated consistently, with a small number of opportunities that might lead somewhere bigger. Start with the lists, choose the next action and put the first review in your calendar.