As the end of the year approaches, often personal finances are the last thing on our minds. Filled with holidays, holiday parties, travel, family, friends, gifts, dinners, it’s certainly a busy time of the year! Budgets (including my own) are often thrown out the window in the name of the holidays and it’s probably one of the hardest times of the year to say ‘no’ to things. Before ringing in 2016 (hurray!), take some time and look over the following end of year financial checklist:

1. Charitable giving.

   Something that’s likely on your radar, whether you thought of it, or whether it was forced upon you (“give before the year’s end”), charitable donations are often on the to-do list of many young professionals. Tax benefits as well as moral benefits are lauded as reasons to open up your wallet to make a donation. There’s definitely some confusion around the tax implications though. For most of us, we’ll take a standard deduction ($6,300 in 2015). This means that the government allows you to deduct $6,300 automatically from your gross income (all the money you made in 2015). This saves you on taxes as your ‘taxable income’ is less. Charitable donations are tax deductible, but if you choose to take the standard deduction ($6,300), it is sort of irrelevant to your taxes as it wouldn’t make a difference. Not that I’m discouraging charitable giving but it’s important to realize that it may or may not actually help you on your taxes. For further reading, check out a previous post I wrote, going in-depth on charitable giving.

2. Take care of last minute housekeeping items.

   The end of the year is certainly busy for all of us, and a lone bill could easily fall under the cracks. It could be anything from a final student loan payment to the monthly cable bill. Alternatively, tis the Season for fraud so keep an extra sharp eye out on your finances. One of my credit cards actually got hacked and I had to contact my credit card company to report fraud. Finally, there could be a scenario in which you find yourself with a little extra money laying around, whether it’s some extra in your budget, a bonus from work, or a nice $20 bill from Grandma. Before spending the extra money as fast as you can (post-Christmas deals!), take a look and see if that money could be better spent, whether as a donation to those less fortunate, paying a little extra on your debt, or even tucking that extra amount in savings.

3. Take inventory and status of 2015.

   What good is a budget if you don’t use it? What good is having a financial goal for yourself if you don’t follow up and see if you reached your goal? It’s important as the year end to sit down and take a look at how you financially did in 2015. Did you save the $1,000 like you were hoping? Were you able to pay an extra $50/month on your student loans? Do you now have an emergency fund in place? Take some time and look over your: credit cards statements, bank balances as well as debt accounts. Reflect on your progress this year, celebrate the successes and make adjustments for the failures.

4. Set goals and plans for 2016.

   There’s the cheesy old saying a lot of us remember from school, “aim for the moon…if you miss you still end up hitting the stars”. Same cheesy principal holds true in personal finance; set big, lofty goals for yourself (almost like a BHAG?). If you don’t set goals for yourself, whether big or small, you’ll certainly achieve them! In addition to setting other New Year’s resolutions, set one or two financial resolutions for yourself.

5. Have fun!

   Life’s short and you can’t take your money with you when you go. Enjoy what’s left of the current year while getting excited about next year!

   Happy New Year from Young Money Finance!