From shopping around for insurance quotes to starting to bank online, financial resolutions are easy to make and can be easy to keep. A bit of organisation will have you well on the way to good economic health. Una McCaffrey reports

Now that the first days of 2002 have passed, it's time for new year's resolutions to be consigned to one of two distinct camps: those that have been kept and those that have been broken.

While the former merit congratulation, the latter are best forgotten - the last thing you need in the dark days of January is recrimination.

All is not yet lost for failed resolution-makers however - there is still time to make amends on the money front. Financial resolutions, while not offering the physical benefits of daily trips to the gym, have the alternative attraction of being extremely easy to make and can be simple to keep. With a lifestyle tweak here and there, you could soon become the lean, mean, financial machine that was previously beyond your reach. It's just a matter of starting with the basics.

1. Invest in a filing system. How many times in the past year did you forget to pay a bill or, worse still, become confused about whether you had paid one or not? Such disorder is not becoming of the financially organised person you have resolved to be and should be eliminated at the first possible opportunity. Less than €30 (£23.63) spent in a good stationery shop will make you the proud owner of a portable alphabetical file that has pockets for each letter. G for gas, E for electricity or M for mobile will not be hard to remember and will save you the hours previously spent searching for bills and papers. You can also use the file to organise important financial documents such as insurance policies, share certificates or communications from the Revenue Commissioners.
2. Speaking of bills, use the party-free January evenings to examine closely your utility bills. Choice is still slow in coming on the gas and electricity front, but it is worth considering a few alternatives regarding landline telephone calls. Savings of as much as 70 cents per minute on phone calls to friends or family in Australia can be achieved by using smaller service providers such as Atlas Telecoms, Swiftcall or Smart Telecom. While you're at it, even your ESB bill could contain a few secrets worth exploring. If you have storage heating, for instance, you may be charged for usage at different rates depending on the time of day. You may be able to save money by restricting use of your power-guzzling tumble dryer to late nights or early mornings when electricity is charged at cheaper rates.
3. Everyone's least favourite bill must be their personal tax bill; even those workers whose tax is deducted at source have nightmares about where and how their tax is paid. Online assistance is at hand in the form of the Revenue Commissioners' excellent website: www.revenue.ie. An extensive questions-and-answers section provides solutions to basic tax queries while e-mail correspondence can satisfy more curious customers. This year, make an extra effort to register with the Revenue On-Line Service (www.ros.ie), where taxpayers can use the internet to view their current income tax, corporation tax, employer tax and VAT position, as well as file tax returns. Payments can even be made by Laser: what could be simpler? While surfing, take an extra few minutes to register with your bank's online service too: soon you'll forget what it was to queue at the counter during your busy lunchtimes. This method also makes it easy to keep track of direct debits in between bank statements and to catch mistakes as soon as they're made, since customers can monitor their accounts as often as they like at no extra charge.
4. Master the dental, optical and aural schemes operated by the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs and the health boards. These schemes, available to insured workers and retired people who have the required number of PRSI (social insurance) contributions, allow individuals and dependent spouses to claim a contribution towards the costs involved in dental, optical or aural work. The amount of social insurance required depends on age, and Department contributions towards bills varies according to treatments. A range of other conditions apply, all of which may seem relatively dull now but which will become more interesting when you're presented with a €1,000 dental bill. All the details (and much more) are available for public consumption on www.oasis.gov.ie
5. On the subject of boring details, make a special effort this year to read the small print on any forms you complete or financial arrangements you conclude. Does your car insurance policy cover damage to your windscreen or will your home policy cover the theft of your laptop if you use it for work? Such matters are only important when problems arise, by which time it's too late to have any doubts. Be particularly careful with conditions attached to online forms, where hitting the "I accept" button is always much too easy. Even if it's simply a matter of refusing future correspondence from some source or other by ticking a box, a little bit of time now could save much irritation later on.
6. Time spent shopping around for financial goodies will also pay off over the long term. From Government-sponsored SSIAs to pet insurance, promise yourself that you will never again accept a financial product without shopping around. Insurance companies are particularly clever on this front, leaving it until the days before your policy is due for renewal before sending next year's estimate, by which time it's too late to seek an alternative.Euros are there to be saved for those who are prepared to pre-empt their current insurer by seeking comparative quotations early. Promise yourself that you won't renew without some research, no matter how hectic your lifestyle may be.
7. In the same vein, banish passivity throughout the rest of your financial life too. The most powerful tool in fighting financial flab is information, and you need to grab it everywhere you can. Start with newspapers, where you can keep track of interest rates and thus be aware of how competitive your mortgage is. You will also find hard information on which stocks are performing strongly and gain some clues on pension fund performance and the best available deposit rates. Television, radio and the internet also provide a range of financial news offerings, all of which can help in turning the usually passive investor into a knowledgeable financial guru. It pays to ask questions.
8. It might seem like the easiest solution to your short-term financial pressures but treating your credit card as an unofficial overdraft facility will always be a foolish and expensive strategy. Make a resolution to pay off your credit card balance within the defined interest-free period every month and, if this isn't achievable, steel yourself for a friendly overdraft chat with your bank manager. An average credit card charges an APR of about 19 per cent, while an overdraft facility can, depending on circumstances, apply a rate of about 15 per cent. The sums should not be hard to do and, if they are, perhaps you're not a credit card person to begin with. If you have trouble keeping track of your spending but can't bear to be parted from your plastic companion, take care this year to avoid paying your credit card bill by direct debit - it's just too easy to ignore looming problems when there's no physical bill to pay.
9. If you are aged 30 or over, make 2002 the year to start a pension. The experts have worked out that a male who hopes to retire at 60 needs to start investing 10 per cent of hissalary at age 25 to realise a pension of just 48 per cent of his income when he leaves work. When the starting date slips to age 35, that pension becomes less than one-third of the previous income, and so it goes on. This is not a subject worthy of procrastination, no matter what your personal circumstances may be. Think of it as stashing the funds for those long holidays in the sun when you retire as a financially fit 55-year-old. Remember also that if you don't sort out your future financial health now, you could be struggling by on as little as €147 (the current state contributory pension) when you reach 66.
10. While out shopping for your pension fund, visit your solicitor's office and draw up a will at some stage over the coming 12 months. No matter how little you think you're worth, any property held in your name is almost sure to be the source of confusion or ill-feeling among relatives if you depart this world intestate. Making a will is a simple and cheap process that will make life easier for those left behind. If you remain unconvinced, have a look at www.wills.ie, an online service that offers to draw up a simple will for free. There's nothing to lose.