Reflect, Review, and Reorient Your Money at the Start of the Year
Pause and assess for a brighter new year
This can be done independently, or as a couple.
While I have a money management routine that I do 2-3 times per year, I find the longer nights of winter—and Dry January 😝— allow me more time to dig in. That’s why early in the new year I take a bit of a different approach, with a wider view and longer timespan to evaluate my financial situation.
Here’s what I did this year, which you can copy or adapt to your circumstances.
Spending Review
First, individually and then together with my husband, we looked at everything we spent money on last year.
Tip: If this feels overwhelming, look at the bigger ticket items, and recurring charges. If you use a spreadsheet expense tracker or program that categorizes your expenses, such as YNAB or Empower (formerly Personal Capital), this can make it much easier to see which categories were the largest. You don’t need to scrutinize every $3 purchase, but look for patterns and the largest areas of your spending.
In reviewing our spending, we analyzed:
Did we accomplish our primary spending goal this year? For us, this was to spend less on dining out. Yes. 👍
Why did we spend more? Was it because of inflation or lifestyle creep? This distinction is hard to determine, but we decided some spending categories were due to inflation and some due to lifestyle creep. We’ll keep that last point in mind for the final section.
Is our spending, especially frequent or high-ticket items, in line with our values? This one is sensitive for us because sometimes our values don’t overlap. And that may be true in your relationship, too.
Are there any areas that we’d like to shift around? For example, spend less on travel and instead upgrade our living situation. IYKYK.
Ultimately the questions we’re trying to assess are: Are we spending too much? Are we spending on the right things for us?
Investment Review
Since we do our own investing, it’s important for us to check our actual holdings at least a couple of times per year. Here are some things we’re looking for:
Are my/our investments performing well, relative to the market as a whole and to their benchmarks?
Are we sufficiently prepared and diversified for some potentially rocky years?
Am I investing in ways I can feel good about? Because I care how companies treat people and the environment. This adds an ethical lens to the performance and diversification questions above.
Have I accumulated too much cash that should actually be invested?
We both decided we needed to change out some investments, mostly in tax-advantaged accounts, and to invest some free cash that was sitting in money markets. That way the cash isn’t losing value to inflation.
Intentions for the Year Ahead
Finally, we discussed shifts we’ve been considering—both big and small.
For us, these often have to do with meaning and impact, how we spend our time, and our long-term goals. And these decisions don’t happen in one dark, rainy night; we get more clear over a series of conversations, interspersed with research, and sometimes with expert advice or new learnings.
Here’s what we’ve been discussing:
Do we want to invest more in other asset classes, such as real estate or private businesses because we want to support diverse founders or get exposure to other industries?
What are our charitable giving priorities? How do we want to allocate to giving? All at once, or spread throughout the year, or as they come up?
Do we need to be bringing in more money to achieve our goals? If so, how?
Are we investing enough in ourselves individually, and as a couple? For example: things that bring us joy, learning & development, professional & personal growth, or connection and strength as a couple. I already made a large investment in my personal and professional growth for 2026, so I’m not adding any more.
While those are on-going conversations, one intention we agreed on was reigning in our travel a bit, both number of trips and class of travel. We hope this will address some lifestyle creep we had last year.
There is no single right way to do a year-in-review. Though, it is time well spent.
It stops us from being on autopilot. We actually see where we’re at and what, if anything, we need to do to course correct.
As you go through this process — or one of your own — consider:
What successes can you celebrate from the previous year?
What areas need work?
Where do you want to be more intentional or proactive with your finances?
Leave a comment below:
What did you discover in your finances?
What are you dreaming of, or hoping to learn or accomplish this year? 💭
