Stop saying no more bubble tea in 2026: How to set realistic New Year resolutions

SINGAPORE – The new year has just begun, and with it, the setting of many unrealistic expectations that I have no hope of ever fulfilling.

In previous years, I said things like “no more bubble tea”, “exercise more”, “save more money” and “cut down on my travel spending!”. None of those things ever came to pass.

Some people try to get around this by setting resolutions that will definitely be achieved with no effort or that are vague enough that any little bit counts – things like “save more” could technically be achieved if I saved $1 more this year.

Sometimes, resolutions are also based on what we see other people doing. Just opening Instagram during the last week of 2025 showed me lists of resolutions that perhaps work for others but are not tailored to my needs. Things like “be happy” or “earn more” reminded me of my own stop-buying-bubble-tea aspirations.

So how do I go about setting useful, practical resolutions that can actually improve my financial health in 2026?

I asked some experts for their top tips in goal setting.

OCBC investment strategy managing director Vasu Menon said: “Instead of vague resolutions, define measurable targets.”

He added that a way to ensure goals are not abandoned halfway is to break them up, such as setting a monthly savings target, instead of just saying “save $20,000 in 2026”.

For instance, if I said I aim to save 20 per cent of my pay every month, that might be more useful than an annual target.

UOB head of group personal financial services Jacquelyn Tan said: “Make decisions from clarity rather than fear.”

On the surface, maybe that seemed rather general, but I realised, when reviewing my insurance policies for one, that decisions can indeed be made out of fear.

As a huge hypochondriac and a person who has medical anxieties, I always fear the worst and bought insurance policies to cover me in health emergencies. I added any rider the agent said I should, and any other add-ons that he suggested, even if in hindsight, they were excessive or too expensive.

Those decisions were made out of a mixture of fear and pressure from the insurance agent, rather than clarity in the types of protection that I wanted.

DBS head of financial planning literacy Lorna Tan said that a goal can be to put idle cash to good use, such as investing.

When it comes to high-yield savings accounts, there might be more cash than is needed to achieve the interest rates, and the extra can be put to use elsewhere.

I guess a lot of my inaction just comes from sheer inertia. After a week’s worth of work, no one really wants to sit down at the laptop to do what I call “personal admin” – checking bank accounts, opening spreadsheets, paying credit card bills.

But perhaps part of my goals could be setting aside time – maybe just once a month on a Saturday afternoon – to sit down and really look through my finances, review them and decide if I can put the money to better use.

After consulting the experts, I created a list that hopefully is more realistic than those of previous years:

Cap bubble tea spending at $10 a week

Rather than saying “no bubble tea”, it seems more realistic to set a weekly cap for the drink. At the rate of price increases in today’s economy, $10 may soon only be able to net me one cup of bubble tea.

But the commitment would mean a sharp drop from the roughly $20 that I spent on three bubble teas a week in 2025.

Cutting the amount in half will also save me from ingesting too much sugar – I hope.

Start collecting miles

In 2025, I took a total of 16 flights, ranging from two hours to nearly 17 hours each time, and yet I earned and claimed a total of zero miles.

A few weeks ago, I finally took the first step in miles collecting, by applying for a credit card. I’d previously only stuck to debit cards because I didn’t want to waste time and brain space thinking about miles or cashback.

But after seeing more friends travel around the world “for free” – all flights redeemed through miles – I think upping my miles game is a good goal. And now that I am open to credit cards, maybe playing the miles game will be something that feels possible. The eventual goal is a free flight to London – some day.

Top up my SRS account for tax relief

The Supplementary Retirement Scheme, or SRS, is a voluntary scheme to encourage people to save for retirement, over and above their Central Provident Fund savings.

If contributions are made to the SRS account before Dec 31, one could gain some income tax relief in the following year of assessment.

The yearly cap for SRS contributions for Singapore citizens is $15,300, and the tax relief amount is the exact amount of SRS contributions made.

The personal income tax relief cap of $80,000 applies to the total amount of all tax reliefs claimed, which includes the relief on SRS contributions.

And while the SRS account does not earn the interest rate of 4 per cent that the CPF Special Account does, funds can be withdrawn with a penalty before the retirement age, rather than being absolutely locked in.

SRS funds can also be invested in a wide variety of ways, such as unit trusts, SGX-listed stocks, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

This makes it an ideal way to cut down on the income tax I have to pay while allowing me to invest for long-term growth – it seems to be a win-win situation.

The experts’ resolutions

Having compiled my little list of resolutions, what sort of goals are the real experts setting?

OCBC’s Mr Menon:

“In 2026, my goal is to take a more active role in managing my savings and investments to meet the multiple needs of my family. At 62, as a father of two young daughters aged eight and 10, financial planning is something I take very seriously.”

His aim: to have yield-generating assets as a significant part of his portfolio (bonds for coupon payments, stocks that pay dividends, unit trusts that invest in equities, fixed income), stocks for potential capital growth, and precious metals as a hedge against uncertainty.

UOB’s Ms Tan:

“My resolutions are to simplify decisions, strengthen resilience and stay invested in what truly compounds – financially and personally (including investing in personal relationships).

“I am less concerned with beating markets in any single year but rather more focused on ensuring my portfolio can compound steadily without forcing lifestyle trade-offs during volatility.”

DBS’ Ms Tan:

“This year, I plan to review my investments that are impacted by the low-interest-rate environment, and continue building sustainable multiple passive income flows to fund my retirement lifestyle.

“I have been contributing to the SRS and my penalty-free withdrawals over 10 years can start from age 62. Most of my SRS savings are invested in local stocks, which performed well last year (2025). I’ve started to liquidate some of the stocks that I do not plan to keep in preparation for the penalty-free cash withdrawals that can commence in the coming years. I plan to place the cash component in safer instruments under SRS.”