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World of personal finance It has been constantly redesigned and transformed by rapidly increasing technological, regulatory and behavioral changes over the years and will continue to do so until 2026.
We spoke to Brian Byrnes, Director of Personal Finance money boxWho shared three key finance trends they believe will define the year ahead.
1. Investing
“One of the trends we saw in 2025 that will continue into 2026 is the overall push toward more investment, and people becoming more confident when it comes to moving from cash to investing,” Byrnes highlighted.
They predict that the UK Retail Investment Campaign (which is due to launch in April 2026) will further increase people’s confidence in investing in the coming year, along with ongoing changes and clarifications regarding investment risk warnings.
The democratization of investment instruments has made investing more accessible than ever.
“It used to be that you had to go to a financial adviser or a relatively expensive investment trading house and pay a lot of fees to invest, but now there are lots of places where you can start investing from as little as £1,” says Byrnes. “There are ready-made investment solutions available at all these places, so you don’t have to pick a stock or fund yourself, you can just choose something like a cautious balance or an adventurous portfolio within five minutes.”
For first-time investors, Byrnes recommends starting small.
“I think the most important thing to do early next year is to start with investing,” says Byrnes. “It’s much less expensive and less risky than most people think. The best thing to do is to start with small amounts so you can build up your knowledge and your confidence with it.”
2. ai
“Many people don’t get access to regulated financial advice in the UK and millions of people are left to their own devices to make these types of financial decisions, so it’s no surprise that people are turning to Aye equipment such as chatgpt For financial advice,” Byrnes admits.
“We’re hoping that what will happen over the next year is that people will start to turn to regulated providers who will use AI to provide them with guidance, goals and support, and advice about their finances rather than going straight to AI chatbots who have no regulations or oversight around the advice they give.”
Byrnes believes there are two main benefits of AI in this area.
“I think one of the main benefits of AI is providing financial advice,” Byrnes says. “Due to operational efficiencies ranging from the use of AI to streamlining of processes, financial advisors will be able to serve many more clients, so they should have more time to spend with clients.”
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He also believes that AI is good at giving people quick, easy answers at a time convenient for them.
“You can open up your AI tool of choice and ask it a question and it will give you an immediate answer,” says Byrnes. “However, this should not be used as definitive financial advice as AI tools have their limitations when it comes to hallucinations and are not always completely accurate.
“So, I think it’s OK to use them as reference tools, but they shouldn’t be the only tools you use to make financial decisions. You should ideally cross-reference it against a financial advisor or other sources of information beyond AI before making a financial decision.
“AI is not going to go away, it’s just going to accelerate in 2026 and we need to make sure that people are using this technology safely.”
3. Pension Dashboard
“The second major thing that will shape the personal finance landscape in 2026 will be the pension dashboard,” says Byrnes. “It’s been about 10 years in the making now, but from the most recent update it looks like the pension dashboard is currently undergoing consumer testing and once it’s done and dusted in the first half of next year, we can actually get to the point where we have a date for when pension dashboards will be available.”
The purpose of the Pension Dashboard is to allow individuals to view their pension information, including their State Pension, in one place online at a time of their choice, for free. Government websiteThe pension dashboard will also re-unite savers with lost or forgotten pensions,
“This will help make the pension system much simpler and easier for consumers to understand,” says Byrnes.
However, in the meantime, Byrnes advises people not to “bury their heads in the sand” about pensions.
“The first step is to assess where you are and make sure that for each job you have, you know where your pension is relative to that job,” Byrnes advises.
“There is a free centralized pension tracing service online at GOV.UK, but there are also a number of commercial providers that offer pension tracing services. At Moneybox we have what we call a Pension Detective which helps you find out where those pensions might be.”