Finance
Financial resolutions for the New Year to help you make the most of your money
It’s the time of year where optimism is running high. We don’t need to be the person we were last year, we can be a shiny new version of ourselves, who is good with money and on track in every corner of our finances. Sadly, our positive outlook doesn’t always last, but with 63% of people making financial resolutions this year, it’s a chance to turn things around.
The key is to make the right resolutions, so here are a few tips to help you make the most of your money in 2026.
The problems that you know about already will spring to mind first.
Research by Hargreaves Lansdown revealed that renters, for example, are the most likely to say they want to spend less – and 23% of them said this was one of their resolutions for 2026. We know rental incomes are more stretched than any others, and on average they have £39 left at the end of the month, so it’s easy to see why they want to cut back.
However, they also struggle in all sorts of areas of their finances. So, for example, fewer than a third are on track with their pension. However, only 11% of them say they want to boost their pension this year.
Read more: The cost of staying loyal to your high street bank
It shows that your first resolution should always be to get a better picture of your overall finances – including using a pensions calculator to see whether you’re on track for retirement.
It’s only when you have a full picture that you can see what you need to prioritise.
Drawing up a budget is boring, and it may not feel like you’re achieving anything, but, like digging the foundations of a building, if you want to build something robust you can’t skip this step.
Make a list of everything coming in and everything you’re spending. Your current account app and the apps of the companies you pay bills to will have the details you need, and a budgeting app makes it easy to plug all the details in.
From there, consider where you can cut back to free up a chunk of money every month to fund your resolutions.
Younger people, aged 18-34, are particularly likely to fall into this trap. The research showed that 40% wanted to save more, 22% to get on top of their finances, 21% to spend less, 19% to pay more into investments, 19% to start investing, 15% to pay off debts and 14% to put more into their pension.
Given that at the start of your career, money tends to be tighter anyway, there’s a real risk that by trying to do so much, you might fall short on all fronts.
It helps to set yourself one realistic goal at a time.
Finance
Low-income Chinese girl aces gaokao, inspires live-streamers offering help
A girl from a disadvantaged rural family in central China topped this year’s gaokao, attracting numerous live-streamers eager to finance her education, which she declined.
The home of 18-year-old secondary school graduate Han Yaping in a Henan province village was recently bustling with live-streamers.
This attention came after Han achieved an impressive score of 699 out of 750 in the gaokao, China’s national college entrance exam.
She has received offers from China’s two leading universities, Tsinghua University and Peking University.
Han’s accomplishment is particularly remarkable given her family’s impoverished circumstances.
Her mother suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammatory arthritis affecting the spine, preventing her from working. Her father, who earns a living through farming and odd jobs, serves as the family’s sole provider. Han also has a younger sister.
Finance
UK financial regulator publishes landmark AI review
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a landmark review on Monday that proposes recommendations to regulate the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the financial decisions made by consumers.
The review, titled the Mills Review, anticipates that both consumers and firms will start delegating “more financial decision-making to AI systems,” including for agreements, initiating transactions, and executing decisions “within agreed parameters.” One of the key findings of the review outlined that while AI can help bridge advice gaps and “support growth,” there remain risks “associated with fraud, cyber security, and consumer harm.” Conducting the review, Sheldon Mills highlighted that “AI can also amplify risks: bias, discrimination, exclusion, opaque decision-making (particularly when multiple AI models interact), misleading or hallucinatory advice and erosion of consumer trust.”
The review stated that presently, one in five adults in the UK are “already open to AI making decisions for them,” particularly when decisions feel “complex or high stakes.” It found that roughly 26 percent of the population “trust general-purpose tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini for financial advice” with little awareness that such platforms provide no “formal routes to recourse” or protections.
Overall, the Mills Review identified four areas that it anticipates will be impacted by AI in the financial sector: “the transformation of firms,” “new consumer journeys,” “a reshaped competition landscape,” and “amplified financial crime and cyber risk.” The FCA projected the shift in how consumers and firms consult AI to take place by 2030.
The Mills Review put forth seven “priority” recommendations to be considered by the FCA Board. It recommended that any transitions to autonomous AI models be monitored and that regulatory frameworks and perimeters be adapted and secured. The review called for the strengthening of “system-wide coordination and oversight,” the scaling up of the FCA’s AI Lab to enable it to support AI models and innovation for agentic finance, and an “AI-enabled agentic supervisory model” to be built and adopted. Finally, it recommended that a trusted “public-interest AI-enabled financial capability service” be developed.
The FCA announced, in the press release, that it will launch an AI “good and poor practice publication” in late 2026.
Finance
Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approves audit contract, new finance director position
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – The Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approved a one-year audit contract capped at $131,750 plus $225 per hour during a virtual meeting Monday, along with a new finance director job description.
The contract is with Mauldin & Jenkins Certified Public Accountants, an Atlanta-based firm, and covers the 2025-26 fiscal year and the restatement of the 2024-25 fiscal year and ancillary services through FY 2029-2030. The work is set to be completed by Nov. 15.
The board approved the contract in a 5-0 vote.
Audit contract details
Interim Chief Financial Officer Kyna Koch said the cost is already accounted for in the district’s budget.
“And is actually less than we expected given our current situation — we were thrilled with the bid,” Koch said.
Koch said she believes this is Mauldin & Jenkins’ first school district audit in Kentucky, but that the firm works with school districts of more than 100,000 students throughout the Southeast.
“Quite frankly when I spoke to the folks at KDE they were thrilled because we’re running kind of short of auditors who want to do school district audits — so all around I think this was a win-win for everyone,” Koch said.
New finance director position
The board also approved a new job description for the position of Director of Finance. Acting Superintendent Dr. Bill Bradford said the title will replace two associate director positions.
“Which will not only save the school district money but it’s also going to streamline our work and align internal controls to make room for a more efficient unit,” Bradford said.
Koch said the position will be posted as soon as possible following the board’s approval.
Closed session
The board went into closed session for more than an hour to discuss pending investigations that could lead to employee discipline. When the board returned, it took no action and adjourned the meeting.
Copyright 2026 WKYT. All rights reserved.
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