Spending time with family tops the list of New Year's resolutions for 2022

If you are being honest with yourself, how many New Year's resolutions have you stuck to? For many, New Year's resolutions are quickly forgotten about and old habits tend to set back in after a couple of months. However, what if the way we perceive New Year's resolutions is changing after the pandemic? For many, aiming for more wholesome and achievable goals like ‘spending time with family’, could ensure that sticking to your new year resolutions is more doable than ever.

Our poll

Last December we took to our social media to ask what your New Year's resolutions were and we were delighted to see that ‘spending time with family’ was champion. With just over 64% of those we asked stating that this will be their main intention for the new year!

If there is one thing we have learnt from the past two years, it is the importance of our health. Most modern life insurance policies now offer free additional benefits and these are almost always fully inclusive of your family as well. For example, one of the UK’s leading life insurance providers, AIG, has Smart Health which is a free service available to everyone who has a policy with them. The service includes some amazing benefits to help manage your health and wellbeing such as mental health support, access to UK-based GP’s, nutrition consultations, tailored health and fitness programmes and all of this is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. So, as important as it is to spend precious time with your family, why not give your loved ones some peace of mind by looking into financial protection and its many benefits in 2022.

Looking at the results of our poll, it appears that for many, the pandemic may have affected the way we perceive what is important in our short-term future. Whilst it is heart-warming to know that people are hoping to prioritize spending time with family in the new year, it is problematic that many are overlooking the importance of having your finances in order.

Taking control of your finances 

Shockingly near the bottom of the list, with only 9.6% of people choosing it as their goal for the new year, was ‘managing finances’. Taking control of your finances is hugely important and one of the biggest benefits of getting your ducks in a row when it comes to money is the peace of mind it can give to not only you, but your family too. If you need some motivation to start managing your finances, looking into financial protection is a great place to start. At Caspian, we work on a fully advised basis, meaning we do all of the hard work for you by searching the market to find the best life insurance policy for you, tailoring it to your specific budget and requirements.

Smoking

One of the main reasons people do not end up sticking to their New Year's resolutions tends to be because they are not emotionally committed to the idea. One of the best ways to figure out if you want to do anything is a pros and cons list. If you can think of more cons than pros, then it probably isn’t the right option for you. One thing we can think of more cons than pros is smoking. Surprisingly, ‘quitting smoking’ was at the least voted New Year’s resolution for 2022, with only 7.2% of people we asked wanting to become cig-free in the new year.

Everyone knows the health benefits of quitting smoking but not many people are aware of how it can affect their life insurance policy. If you are a smoker with a life insurance policy, you will likely be paying more than your non-smoking counterparts. However, kicking the habit for just 12 months or more can positively affect your life insurance premiums, as most providers would class you as a non-smoker after quitting for just 12 months. If you are thinking about quitting smoking in the new year - click here to read our helpful blog post with tips and tricks to help you quit! 

One way of interpreting the results we received from our poll is that perhaps people are intending to focus on their mental health and wellbeing more so than their physical health this new year. This could be a result of the pandemic or a result of there being more awareness surrounding mental health over the past few years - either way, it is refreshing to see. Forget, ‘new year, new you’ in 2022, instead of making unsustainable resolutions this year, you can be the same you but focus on prioritizing your happiness.