We are on the cusp of a brand-new year! I hope you all had a chance to visit (in person or virtually) with the people important to you over the holiday season. While I’ve never been a particular fan of structured religion, I do have to thank those crazy ancient guys for giving us a few times a year to make sure we get together with loved ones. While celebrating the New Year (with a nod to Julius Caesar – in one of the ultimate “I am the Champion” moments, since the New Year used to be celebrated in March but that didn’t work in his new calendar, he moved it!) now is often the time we look both forward and back to decide what we want our coming year to look like.

As we look back, how did 2024 work out for you financially? I know some of you made some big career changes and others are pondering their options. The markets continued their run of irrational exuberance so some of you took winnings off the table and some of you are trying to eek out just a little bit more (just remember the old saying: Bulls make money, Bears make money, and Pigs get slaughtered). Many of you updated your legal paperwork, whether because it was really (really) old (or nonexistent) or just to be on the safe side as we dance between the germs, and others made some life-changing decisions because there is no time like the present to be present in our own lives (says the woman who dyes a magenta streak in her hair…).

What does 2025 bring for you? Maybe this is the year you tackle tracking your cash flow on a more granular level since, if the last couple of years has taught us anything, things often don’t have the power to support us emotionally the way we think they do. For some, this might be the year we learn a little bit more about our own financial situation to improve our financial literacy (wait, I feel like I’ve said that before…. It’s still a good idea).

If you haven’t revisited your financial plan in the last couple of years, perhaps it’s time to make sure those assumptions and results are still accurate, particularly if you are pondering one of those life-changing decisions. And I know some of us have started to think about what it means to grow older while being single, while others are wondering how to grow older paired with someone aging faster/slower than themselves (OK, that’s probably a multi-year project). The New Year brings us the opportunity to clean the slate, forgive ourselves for those astonishingly inappropriate purchases, and build some new habits. As we’ve talked about before, picking just one thing about your financial life and using the next three months to see what you can do to feel better about that one thing can have a wonderful snowball effect of improving all sorts of aspects of our lives.

In their annual survey, the Motley Fool found 54% percent of respondents feel stressed or anxious about their personal finances at least three days a week and 87% say they experience financial stress at least once a week. I’ve yet to meet the person who can ignore their financial life without it creeping back into their psyche as fear / shame / anxiety / insecurity so why not turn those feelings on their head and use your money to make you feel stronger / in control / powerful?

In closing, I’ve heard from several people that their banks and usual sources aren’t scheduling a “shred” drop off, so I’d like to extend an offer – as you purge your old records to bring in the New Year, please feel free to bring your shred bag to your next appointment and we’ll have our commercial service take care of it. Happy New Year Everyone!