Most financial admin isn't hard. It's just easy to forget, because nothing forces you to do it: no bill arrives, no reminder pops up. So it doesn't happen, and small amounts of money quietly leak away all year.
Here's a short list worth putting a date in the calendar for. None of it takes long. All of it is worth more than the twenty minutes it costs.
Check you're not overpaying on renewals
Insurance, broadband, and some subscriptions are often priced to reward inertia: a cheaper deal exists, but only if you ask or switch. Loyalty rarely gets you the best rate; a five-minute call or a quick look at Compare usually does.
Check your tax code
Tax codes don't always update automatically when your circumstances change: a new job, a company benefit, or a previous employer's numbers can leave the wrong one sitting on your payslip for months without anyone noticing. See our Payslips & tax, actually explainer for exactly what to check.
Track down old pensions
If you've changed jobs, there's a reasonable chance there's a workplace pension sitting somewhere you've lost track of. It doesn't disappear, but it also doesn't do anything for you while it's forgotten. The government's free pension tracing service can help you find it, and our Retirement Tracker is a free way to keep every pot in one place once you have.
Use what's left of your ISA allowance
The ISA allowance doesn't carry over: whatever's unused when the tax year ends is simply gone, not saved for next year. Worth a quick check each year whether there's headroom left worth using before the deadline — our Investment Calculator can show you what topping it up could be worth over time.
Check your credit report
Not because you need to do anything with it necessarily, but because errors happen: an old account that should have dropped off, an address that's wrong, occasionally something that isn't yours at all. Checking costs nothing and takes a few minutes — see our Credit scores, actually explainer for what actually affects yours.
The actual point
None of this is exciting. That's rather the point: it's not about finding a clever trick, it's about not quietly losing money to things nobody's actively checking. Twenty minutes, once a year, genuinely covers most of it.
This article is general information, not personalised financial advice. For guidance specific to your situation, a regulated financial adviser can help.