Among the 70% of Poles who had any financial plans for 2025, one in four completed them in full, according to a study prepared for BIG InfoMonitor. As consumers enter 2026, they are more inclined toward stability than major change. Their plans are dominated by caution, tighter control of spending, and building a financial buffer—rather than rapid income growth or career revolutions.
How Poles sum up 2025: plans existed, execution was partial
The study shows that around 30% of adult Poles had no financial plans for 2025 at all. Among those who did, 10% failed to implement them entirely, 37% implemented them partially, and 23% completed them in full. This means most people are ending the year with a sense of “done, but not quite,” which directly translates into a more conservative approach to the next 12 months.
2026: less “stepping on the gas,” more cost control
When asked about non-essential spending plans for 2026, the most frequently cited areas were home renovations and replacing household equipment (35%). Nearly as many respondents mentioned building a financial cushion for tougher times (33%), while 30% plan to allocate funds to holidays. At the same time, as many as 26% have no specific spending plans for the new year.
Notably, this year’s declarations more often reflect a desire to reduce spending rather than increase it. There is one clear exception: health and physical well-being. Here, more people plan to increase spending (15%) than to reduce it (9%). This suggests that some households consider health-related expenses “non-negotiable,” even while tightening the rest of their budgets.
Saving: one in five wants to put more aside, but caution prevails
In 2026, 21% of Poles declare that they want to save more than in 2025 for goals such as buying property, travel, or investments. Another 23% plan to increase savings by cutting current expenses. At the same time, 6–7% openly say they will save less than in the outgoing year. After excluding “hard to say” responses, the share planning to increase savings stands at 27–29%.
In practice, this means that the willingness to build reserves is visible, but it is driven mainly by “budget housekeeping” rather than by significant income jumps.
The most common scenario: “it will be similar to how it was”
The most striking conclusion concerns expectations: as many as 42% of respondents believe their financial situation will not change in 2026. An improvement is expected by 17%, while 25% anticipate a deterioration. Importantly, the belief that nothing will change is now clearly more common than a year ago (up from 35% to 42%). At the same time, the shares of both “optimists” and “pessimists” have declined, suggesting cooler, more wait-and-see sentiment.
Differences are also visible across age groups: younger respondents are more likely to expect improvement—from just 10% among those aged 55+ to 29% in the 25–34 age group.
Corrective actions: fewer “I’ll change jobs,” more “I’ll stop wasting money”
In 2026, one in four Poles does not plan any actions aimed at improving their financial situation (24%). Among the rest, simple budget-control mechanisms dominate: limiting impulsive purchases (44%) and optimizing expenses, such as searching for cheaper offers (39%).
It is also characteristic that 53% of Poles do not plan to increase their income in 2026—4 percentage points more than a year earlier. Those who do want to improve the income side most often think about an additional source of income (26%) or selling unnecessary items (18%). Only one in ten declares an intention to change jobs for a better one.
According to Waldemar Rogowski, Chief Analyst at BIG InfoMonitor, this confirms a low readiness for “big moves” and a shift of efforts toward the spending side rather than income growth.
Debt: repayment declarations often lose to reality
Nearly three-quarters of adult Poles declare that they have no overdue liabilities. Among the 28% who do have arrears, 10% want to repay them in full in 2026, and 15% partially. BIG InfoMonitor notes, however, that declarations do not necessarily translate into action: last year, 11% announced plans to fully repay arrears, but only 5% actually managed to do so.
At the same time—despite improvements in some indicators—the average amount of overdue debt per person is rising. In November 2025 it stood at PLN 34,288, compared with PLN 33,309 a year earlier and PLN 31,449 two years earlier. At the end of November 2025, more than 2.4 million Poles had a combined total of over PLN 82.7 billion in overdue debt recorded in the databases of BIG InfoMonitor and BIK.
External risks still top concerns
As many as 75% of respondents fear the impact of external factors on their finances—such as inflation, interest rates, the labor market, or geopolitical developments. High levels of concern are declared by 31% of respondents, more often women than men.
Commenting on the results, Waldemar Rogowski notes that 2026 may bring strong GDP growth (even above 4%), with still low unemployment and slower wage growth than in the past, but also limited room for further significant interest rate cuts. He identifies rising geopolitical risk as the main threat to household finances.
A cautious 2026: stability, spending control, and health as a priority
The study paints a picture of consumers who expect neither a sharp improvement nor a collapse—they mainly want to “stay the course.” Financial plans for 2026 are based on everyday discipline: monitoring expenses, seeking better prices, building reserves, and selectively increasing spending on health. With low readiness to change jobs and more than half of respondents not planning income growth, purchasing and saving behaviors will be the key test of the real condition of Polish household finances.
The study “Poles’ Financial Plans for 2026” was conducted for BIG InfoMonitor by Keralla Research as an omnibus quantitative CATI survey on a sample of 1,040 respondents in December 2025.
Source: ceo.com.pl
