Take Control: Creating a Clear Financial Picture

One of the most empowering steps you can take in your financial journey is developing a clear picture of where you stand financially — and where you want to go. At Stringer Mann Chartered Financial Planners, we understand that getting started can feel daunting. That’s why we’re here to provide guidance, tools and expert advice to help you plan ahead with confidence.

This blog is part of our new Financial Confidence Series - designed to help you feel more in control of your money, with practical, jargon-free guidance you can actually use.

Understand Your Spending

According to a 2025 study by NatWest involving 10,000 adults, 35% of people don’t have a budget in place¹. That’s a significant number - and a missed opportunity to gain financial clarity.

The best place to begin is with your spending. Start by tracking all your regular outgoings: essential costs like rent or mortgage, utilities, transport, and food. Then take a look at non-essential items, such as streaming services, subscriptions or impulse purchases. It’s easy to forget about standing orders for things we no longer use.

It can be helpful to split your spending into three categories:

• Essentials – rent, bills, groceries, travel to work.
• Non-essentials – eating out, entertainment, gym memberships.
• Irregular costs – birthdays, car repairs, holidays.

Apps like Emma or Money Dashboard can make this process easier by linking to your bank account and showing you where your money goes. Identifying patterns in your spending gives you a stronger foundation for making decisions - whether that’s reducing debt, increasing savings, or investing for the future.

Review Your Income Streams

Equally important is understanding your income. This might sound simple, but it’s worth taking the time to review all the money coming into your account each month. Start by listing your different income streams to help work out where you currently stand. This will include for example:

• Salary or wages (after tax and deductions)
• Bonuses or overtime
• Side hustles or freelance work
• Any benefits or government support
• Rental income or dividends from investments

Once you’ve mapped your current income, you can start thinking about how this might change. As future planning begins, you can begin to look at how income will change, perhaps through promotions at work, changing from full time to part time or income you will receive from pensions after retirement.

Understanding your full income picture helps you plan ahead and avoid any unpleasant surprises.

Determine Your Financial Goals

Once you understand your spending and income, the next step is setting goals - both short-term and long-term. What do you want your money to help you achieve?

For example:

• Paying off a credit card within 12 months
• Saving a deposit to buy your first home
• Going mortgage-free by a certain age
• Retiring at 60 with a specific income target
• Setting aside money for a family, business, or travel dreams

Having clear, realistic goals makes your financial picture more focused and helps motivate action. In fact, 47% of those taking advice say it's enabled them to reach a specific life goal like paying off a mortgage or upsizing or manage one of life's hurdles such as a job loss or loss of a partner.²

Bringing It All Together

When you bring all these elements together - spending, income, goals - you start to paint a picture of your financial reality and what’s possible. For instance, if you want to save £300 a month for retirement, does your current budget allow it? Could you cut back or increase income to make it happen?

It’s also worth remembering that thanks to compound interest, starting early with even small contributions can make a big difference over time. If you’re able to invest just £10 a month into your pension now, it’s far better than doing nothing - and the earlier you start, the more time your money has to grow.

This is the heart of financial confidence: understanding where you are, where you want to be, and how to bridge the gap.

The value of an investment with St. James's Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds you select and the value can therefore go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invested.

How Stringer Mann Can Assist

At Stringer Mann, we’re here to help you create this picture and build a plan that works for you. From reviewing your current financial situation to discussing pensions, investments and life goals, we can help you feel more in control - and more confident about your future, whatever your goals may be.

If you’d like help creating a clear picture of your finances, we’re here to help. Please get in touch: 01442 874888 or contact us here.

¹Source: The NatWest Savings Index (2025) - A survey run by NatWest on 10,000 Adults to offer insights into savings across different cities, age groups and income groups. Available at: https://www.natwest.com/savings/savings-guides/savings-index.html#IndexOverview

²Source: The Real Life Advice Report (2024) – A survey run by St. James's Place. Opinium surveyed just under 12,000 UK adults nationwide in two polls between May and August 2024. Quotas and post-weighting were applied to the sample to make the dataset representative of the UK adult population. Quantative data referenced is sourced from the first poll which had a total sample of 7,995 respondents. Both those who use financial advice, and those who don’t, were included in this extensive research. Available at: https://www.sjp.co.uk/individuals/news/whats-the-real-life-value-of-financial-advice

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Although the content of the article was correct at the time of writing, the accuracy of the information should not be relied upon, as it may have been subject to subsequent tax, legislative or event changes.