A common view is that people struggle with money because nobody explained it to them. For many people, the knowledge is already there.
Ask almost anyone whether they should have three months of costs set aside. They will say yes. Ask whether a store card at 29.9% is expensive. They will say yes. Ask whether the pension is better started at 30 than at 45 and you will get the right answer from someone who has not opened their pension statement in four years.
Advice assumes you are ready to act. Often you are not yet, which is a normal part of how people change.
The stages-of-change model
The finding comes from the stages-of-change model developed by James Prochaska and Carlo DiClemente in the early 1980s, out of research into how smokers quit — including the awkward discovery that most people who successfully stopped had done it without any programme at all. Their work identified that people move through recognisable stages, and that at any given moment only a minority are in the stage where action happens. In their smoking studies, fewer than one person in five was ready to act; the majority were either weighing it up or had not yet named it as a problem.
The model has since been applied well beyond smoking — to exercise, alcohol, medication and, by financial coaches and therapists, to money. The stages are the same.
Advice given at the wrong stage can reduce the chance of change, because the person spends the conversation building arguments against it, and people believe their own arguments more than other people’s.
What the stages look like from the inside
- Hasn't named it. “My finances are basically fine.” Information at this stage can feel like criticism.
- Weighing it up. “I probably should sort the card out at some point.” Considering it, but not acting. This stage can last for years.
- Nearly ready. Looking things up, asking people, working out how it would actually go. Small experiments start here.
- Acting. Often the shortest phase.
- Holding it. Slipping back is common at this stage. Many people go round the cycle more than once.
You will be in different stages for different things at the same time. Someone can manage their pension well and avoid looking at their current account.
What this costs
An illustrative example, not a real client. Suppose you are carrying £3,800 on a credit card at 24.9% APR. That balance costs about £71 in interest in the first month. On a typical minimum payment of 1% of the balance plus interest, your first payment is around £109 — and only £38 of it touches what you owe. At that rate the balance takes decades to clear.
Pay a flat £190 a month instead and the same debt clears in roughly 25 months, costing about £1,000 in interest.
If you are weighing it up, seeing that table again may not change what you do. What can help is naming the belief behind the current behaviour, for example “if I put everything towards the card I’ll have nothing to live on and I’ll use the card again”. That concern is reasonable. A free debt adviser, such as StepChange or National Debtline, can help work out how to deal with it.
Matching the move to the stage
Find your stage on one specific money problem, then take the move that belongs to it.
- Hasn't named it → gather facts with no plan attached. Log every payment for one month.
- Weighing it up → write two lists: what the current behaviour gives you, and what it costs.
- Nearly ready → run one small experiment with a date on it. For example, cancel one direct debit or open one statement.
- Acting → make it automatic. Standing order the day after payday, so the decision is made once rather than monthly.
- Holding it → plan for the wobble in advance. Decide now what you will do if it goes wrong one month.
This week
Pick one money thing you have been meaning to deal with. Write it down as a specific sentence — “the £3,800 card”, not “my finances”. Then answer one question: have I taken any action on this in the last thirty days? If no, you are not in the acting stage, and an action plan is unlikely to work yet. Do the step from the list above that matches your stage, and give it a fortnight.
Our money type tool looks at the beliefs behind it, and the Financial Freedom Score tells you which area to point it at first. If you would rather do the thinking with someone else in the room, see coaching. If money is a pressing worry, go to the free specialists first; our money worries page lists who to call today.