Reflection

By mid‑February the roses are wilted, the chocolates are gone and the Valentine’s charges are sitting stubbornly in your banking app alongside higher groceries, power and mortgage repayments. Instead of feeling guilty about one night out, this is the perfect moment to sketch a simple 2026 money calendar that actually fits real life in Australia – school terms, rate changes, Black Friday sales, tax time and Christmas – so you make a few well‑timed moves across the year that leave you feeling more in control and less blindsided by the next big bill.

With the first RBA meeting of the year just around the corner on 3 February, there is plenty of speculation regarding interest rate paths. However, the most successful investors and households don't spend their energy trying to predict the unpredictable. Instead, they focus on resilience. This means structuring their finances so that they remain in a position of strength, regardless of what the headlines say.

Most financial success isn't the result of one lucky break or a single "win" on the market. Instead, it’s built on the small, repetitive choices you make every day. As we move further into 2026, let’s analyse which behaviours are helping you grow and which might be quietly holding you back.

Welcome back! It’s wonderful to be writing to you again as we kick off a brand-new year of financial updates. I hope you had a relaxing break and a fantastic start to 2026. By the third week of January, the initial excitement of New Year’s resolutions often starts to fade. If your financial goals feel a little harder to stick to than they did on January 1st, don’t worry, you’re certainly not alone. Now is the perfect time for a "mid-month reset" to ensure your bank balance and your goals are heading in the right direction for the rest of the year.

As the year wraps up, it's the ideal moment to transition from day-to-day money management to strategic wealth building. If you're currently generating strong income and have achieved basic financial security, your 2026 goals should centre on optimisation, expansion, and protection. We'll use the S.M.A.R.T. framework to set some sample goals that could move you closer to financial independence or early retirement.

Christmas is a wonderful time, but it’s also the most financially draining period of the year. It's easy to get swept up in the festive spirit, promising yourself you’ll worry about the bills in the New Year. The problem is, that post-holiday stress and high-interest debt can linger long after the decorations are packed away. You don't need to cut back on joy to have a financially responsible Christmas. You just need a practical, realistic budget. Let's look at how you can plan for the holidays now and avoid that unpleasant debt hangover in January.

We often treat our finances as a simple monthly cycle: get paid, pay bills, save what's left. But in reality, money never flows that smoothly. Life is full of 'lumpy' expenses which are costs that aren't monthly but are absolutely predictable and guaranteed to arrive, like quarterly insurance premiums, annual registrations, or unexpected medical fees. These costs are often too big for your regular monthly budget, but too small or predictable to be covered by your massive, long-term emergency fund. This is why you need a dedicated financial buffer fund.