The new year is usually the best time for people to sit back, reflect and start setting goals for the new year.

 Most people will have some financial goals in 2023, whether that’s to save money, get out of debt or even buy a new home.

 Here’s how to hit the major financial goals in the next 12 months.

 Start to budget and save

 Irrespective of your financial goal, you will need to start by learning how to set and stick to a budget. You can start by looking at all your expenses and classifying them as either essential or discretionary.

 From there, take your income and decide how much you want to put aside every month. That might be 10 per cent, so you know you need to find a way to make your income minus your total expenses hit that target.

 A good way to do this is to prioritise your discretionary expenses and then cut back on certain areas. For example, if you like to eat out, you still can, just cut back on how many times per week you are going out. Or you could cut out something else, like a streaming service or two and put that towards a more important expense.

 Get out of debt

 If you’ve been living beyond your means for any length of time, you might have found yourself in a situation where you’ve used debt to finance your lifestyle. Debt is a valuable tool when used to purchase assets such as property, but when used on discretionary items it can cause a lot of problems.

 The first thing to do is understand where your money is going every month. Total up all your debts and their respective interest rates. A great way to take control of your debts is to consolidate them all into one loan product that comes with a lower interest rate. That way you can easily manage the repayments and quickly pay down your debt.

 It’s usually worth paying down your debts before trying to save because you’ll be paying interest on the outstanding loan amount.

 Buy a new home

 Whether you’re a first homebuyer or an upgrader, most people will have the goal of getting into their perfect property somewhere in their mind.

 If you’ve successfully put together a budget and paid down any debts, then the time will come when you need to save for a deposit. Saving achieves multiple things – it helps build up a nest egg that you can use as a deposit, while it also shows a lender that you can manage money.

 Start saving and putting money away so you get into the habit of living off only a portion of your income. When the time comes to buy, you will know what you are capable of managing in terms of repayments and that should give you plenty of confidence to move forward with buying a property.

 With Government schemes that can help first home buyers get into a property with as little as a five per cent deposit, purchasing a home in 2023 is within reach for many people.