Working in global finance taught me something surprising: high income doesn’t automatically equal money confidence. Money shame shows up in the most unexpected places. On the trading floors of London and Wall Street, with six screens flashing and money moving at speed, I still saw brilliant women who felt behind, ashamed, or one step from disaster. Not because they weren’t smart, but because so many of us were taught how to earn, not how to feel safe and spacious with what we have.
Sorting your finances this year isn’t about being “better with money” — it’s about getting your life back from the constant low-level stress. If you’ve done the 3 am spiral, the mental maths at the supermarket till, or the “one unexpected bill and I’m sunk” feeling, you’re not alone. The goal for 2026 is simple: less stress, more choice. You get there with a plan you’ll actually use: a few small systems that take under 30 minutes to set up and just a few minutes a week to maintain.
In this frame, wealth is not just a bigger number. It is optionality, meaning more ways to say yes or no on your own terms. Confidence comes from simple, repeatable contact with your money that builds trust over time. This is your shortcut from awareness to alignment to action.
Money systems only work when they reflect what you value. Each of the four tools below replaces an unhelpful belief, offers one doable action, and gives you back a little more choice. Read on to take back control of your money this year.
1. Name What “enough” looks like
Belief to release: “When I hit a bigger number, then I’ll finally feel safe.”
Action: Take ten minutes and define “enough for 2026” in real terms. Write one sentence each for: your monthly essentials (rent or mortgage, council tax, energy, travel, childcare, minimum debt repayments), your buffer goal (start with one month of essentials), and one future-you contribution (ISA or pension).
Relief: You stop chasing a moving target and start aiming at a clear shape.
2. Build a calm money system
Belief to release: “If I just try harder, I’ll stay on top of it.
Action: Keep it simple and automated.
A bill’s account where direct debits live (rent or mortgage, council tax, utilities, phone, subscriptions you keep).
A spending account for day-to-day.
A future-you pot for a buffer, ISA, or pension.
Set transfers for payday so the system runs without willpower. Then do one weekly 20-minute “Money Visibility” check: open your banking app, scan what’s due before next payday, and take one tidy action, i.e, cancel a subscription you don’t use, renegotiate utilities, move £20, chase a payment.
Relief: Your money stops living in your head and starts living in a structure you trust.
3. Track energy, not just expenses
Belief to release: “Budgeting means cutting everything that feels good.”
Action: For one week, notice what expands you and what drains you. Expands are things you genuinely use and feel better for. Drains are the purchases that leave you flat, guilty, or surprised. At the end of the week, keep your ‘expands’, and make one drain smaller, i.e., by spending less often, finding a cheaper alternative, or implementing a simple weekly cap.
Relief: You keep pleasure, but you stop funding autopilot.
4. Invest in support before you “deserve” it.
Action: Pick one form of support, and commit to it this week, not “someday”. That might be a money podcast or book you will actually finish, a single session with a trusted adviser, or a room of women who talk about money without shame. Then add one action that strengthens your income, because feeling safe is about both what you keep and what you’re paid.
Relief: Money stops being a secret you manage alone at 11 pm, getting help becomes an act of self-respect, not something you have to earn first.
The habit that changes everything
If you take one thing into 2026, let it be a weekly 20-minute Money Visibility ritual. Open your banking apps and do a quick sweep of what is true, what is due, and what needs your attention. When I finally did this properly and went through old pensions, credit cards, and forgotten subscriptions, the numbers were not pretty, but the fear shrank as soon as I looked.
Small, consistent contact with your money calms the nervous system faster than any colour-coded plan. You learn you can look, take one small action, and still be safe.
In 2026, the goal is not to master money. It is to stop being intimidated by it. You deserve a year where your finances feel like a foundation, not a threat, and where choices come from calm, not from crisis. If you want to go deeper than a reset, More Money, More Life is there as a longer companion for the journey.