More than 6 million Romanians will make finance-focused New Year’s resolutions, trumping fitness and professional goals

Half (50%) of those making 2023 New Year’s resolution will focus on their finances but less than the 51% that will focus on health and wellbeing Side hustles, investing, saving and budgeting are most common financial aspirations for next year   More than 6 million Romanians are making a New Year’s resolution to sort out their finances in 2023 to combat the rising cost of living, new research from eToro finds.   A survey of 2,000 Romanian adults by the social investing network eToro found that 67% of them plan to make a New Year’s resolution this year, with half of this group (50%) pledging to set a financial goal in 2023, just behind health & wellbeing goal (51%). Further behind came other traditional resolutions with 38% aiming to improve their personal development, 37% aiming for improving their career, 36% working for better family and social relationships, and only 25% pledging to become more fit next year.   Among those aiming to improve their finances, for almost half of them (49%) the most common goal is to start a side hustle to bring in more cash in 2023. Meanwhile, 40% plan to start investing for their future, with another 40% aiming to start saving for an important acquisition like a house. Sticking to a fixed budget is a priority for 37% of Romanians in 2023, while 33% are looking to create an emergency fund. Also, 31% of respondents aim for a debt reduction plan and less than 14% want to contribute more to their pension fund.   Bogdan Maioreanu, analyst at eToro, says: “The cost of living crisis is dominating the headlines and it’s clearly making people think carefully about how they’ll get by next year. Saving more or budgeting are always popular resolutions, but the fact that more Romanians are looking for side hustles to gain more money, as households are being hammered by rocketing costs, says a lot.”   “While we’re all hoping financial pressures will ease in 2023, Romanians are clearly planning to fight back next year by improving the way they manage their money and by focusing on their health.”   Romanians have a mixed record in keeping money-related resolutions, eToro’s research has found. Of those who set money-related goals at the start of 2022, only 29% are still going strong, while 27% lasted six months and 17% made it to the end of March. When it comes to fitness related resolutions the results are even worse. Only 24% of those who made fitness resolutions are still keeping them. The largest percentages of people that kept their new year resolutions were the ones (46%) that pledged to have better family relationships followed by the ones (38%) that aimed for health and wellbeing and the ones (38%) aiming for a better career.   For those who did not manage to sustain their financial resolutions in 2022, the most common reasons for stopping were struggling to keep pace with the rising cost of bills (67%), inflation (61%) and too many expenses (60%).   Respondents were also asked about some of the most unusual resolutions they have made in past years, with examples including to fly around the globe in Elon’s Musk rocket ship, to stop using social media at least for the New Years Eve, to have a vacation in Bali, to eat kebab in Turkiye, or to take a loan to invest in personal development.   eToro’s Maioreanu, added: “We’ve all made resolutions that we’ve ended up not keeping, for whatever reason. Often that is because we choose something that is overly ambitious or simply unachievable. The trick might be to set multiple smaller, more attainable goals, such as making sure you save some money – it doesn’t matter how much – each month. When you reach your goal, if you find that too easy, then tell yourself you are going to target a larger amount, and keep raising the bar until you find a level you feel comfortable with.”   About this report The research above was based on a 2000 person nationally representative survey of Romanian adults, carried out by Appinio between November 28th and December 2nd.   About eToro   eToro is a social investment network that empowers people to grow their knowledge and wealth as part of a global community of investors. eToro was founded in 2007 with the vision of opening up the global markets so that everyone can trade and invest in a simple and transparent way. Today, eToro is a global community of more than 30 million registered users who share their investment strategies; and anyone can follow the approaches of those who have been the most successful. Due to the simplicity of the platform users can easily buy, hold and sell assets, monitor their portfolio in real time, and transact whenever they want.