It's Time for Money Moves
You’re reading this on September 26th or later.
That means you have at most 96 days left to make your 2025 money moves.
New Year’s is a great time to review money, but fall is the perfect time to act on money.
Retirement Contributions, Healthcare Benefits, and your Personal Money Goals reset January 1. The clock’s ticking on 2025.
Here’s your 96-day money checklist. Nail these three and you’ll start 2026 miles ahead.
First, review that retirement
It’s annoying how often personal finance people discuss retirement.
It’s even more annoying to not have enough money to live when we’re older.
So I’ll keep running my mouth.. :)
The two things I’d like you to check are your:
- IRA Contributions
- 401(k) Contributions
You’re allowed to deposit $7,000 into your IRA in 2025 - how’s that going? Got some room to go?
Set up a monthly auto-deposit. It will probably take you 15 minutes.
Now if you haven’t started contributing, saving $2,333 for each of the next three months might be steep, but the good news is you can actually contribute 2025 dollars until April 15, 2026 (Uncle Sam knows we procrastinate).
If you start contributing in October and go until April, you would need to do $1,000 / month to hit your max - a bit more manageable.
$7,000 for retirement may not sound like a lot.
It’s not at first. But do that every year until you retire and that’s $1.4 Million inflation-adjusted dollars.
For my higher earners, check your 401(k) and see what adjustments you need to make to hit that $23,500 max.
For my highest earners, you can contribute up to $70,000 when accounting for after-tax contributions. Ask your 401(k) provider for more details on that.
Unlike IRAs, December 31 is a hard stop for 401(k) contributions.
Second: Check Your Health
The Healthcare System in America isn’t perfect, but there’s still a lot you can take advantage of.
Check your HSA contributions
If it’s just you, your contribution limit is $4,300. Have a family? $8,550 is your max.
Remember, the HSA is a TOP-NOTCH place for your money for the many reasons I outline here. Make sure you take advantage.
Get Ready for the Gauntlet of Open-Enrollment
No real “to-do” here other than mentally prepare to set aside 3 hours when it is time to enroll for 2026 health benefits.
Get ready to use a lot of ChatGPT and Google to understand your plans and what might be best for you.
It takes a lot of work to make that decision so be ready.
Finally, you had goals in January 2025 - how’d you do?
Life gets busy and our best laid plans oft’ go awry. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get back on track.
Emergency Fund: Is it there? Did it grow? Did you end up needing to use some of it?
How are those student loans looking?
What about the fun stuff? Did saving up for the new golf clubs pay off? You end up taking that vacation?
It's easy to feel like there are a lot of "should do's" in personal finance. But remember, your management of money is a means to an end. Make sure you are setting goals for yourself and celebrating the wins along the way!
Checking in on yourself now still gives you the time to change and accomplish what you wanted for yourself in 2025.
If you’re sitting pretty on everything above, here are some bonus moves to consider:
- Tax-Loss Harvesting
- Review Your Credit Report
- Start Hunting for a New Credit Card Bonus Offer
- Car/Home/Renters Insurance Checkup
