Personal finances are top of mind for many households as they get set to ring in the new year.
About 38% of Americans ranked financial stability as their No. 1 focus area for 2025, according to a recent Allianz Life survey.
CNBC reached out to certified financial planners on its Financial Advisor Council to list their top resolutions for households as they look ahead to the coming year.
Here’s the financial advice they offered.
Kamila Elliott, Co-founder and CEO of Collective Wealth Partners
Kamila Elliott, CFP, is co-founder and CEO of Collective Wealth Partners in Atlanta.
Kamila Elliott
Create and stick to your budget! Max out on retirement contributions and create one personal financial goal such as paying off credit cards or investing an additional $100 a month in an investment account.
Barry Glassman, Founder and president of Glassman Wealth Services
It starts and ends with knowing where the money is going. I encourage people to track their spending for a period of time, maybe going back to three months’ worth of credit card and Apple Pay payments. It’s incredible what behaviors will change once people just know the truth.
Marguerita Cheng, CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth
Courtesy Marguerita Cheng
I’m going to say estate planning. It’s important for everyone to address — even for an 18-year-old heading off to college in Fall 2025. I had my daughter complete a health care and financial power of attorney before I sent her off to college.
If people feel overwhelmed with the estate planning process, I remind people that it’s a process. Start with a financial and health care power of attorney.
You can then focus on beneficiary designations. Next, a will and trust, if the trust is appropriate for your situation. This process also helps individuals track down retirement plans from former employers. Estate planning is a wonderful opportunity to revisit life insurance as well.
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Lee Baker, founder, owner and president of Claris Financial Advisors
1. It’s not a popular subject but take the time review all your insurance coverages:
Auto and home in particular have jumped significantly for many people. Don’t forget about disability and life insurance. As long as you can get up and earn a living, you can replace your car or rebuild your home. What happens if you can’t generate an income?
2. Spend some time reviewing your tax strategies and retirement planning:
- Required minimum distributions: Do you ‘need’ them? Would making Qualified Charitable Distributions improve your overall picture?
- Tax loss harvesting: Here’s an opportunity to improve your overall portfolio performance.
- Employee benefits: Are you fully taking advantage of a health savings account (if available) and retirement plan contributions?
3. Review your cash flow:
If you spent more than you should have over the holidays, now is a good time to make a plan to get rid of that financial hangover as well as making a plan to avoid it next year. Take a look at your personal interest rate environment. We have gotten a few rate cuts from the Federal Reserve so far. There may be more but either way take stock of your situation.
Cathy Curtis, founder and CEO of Curtis Financial Planning
1. Automate savings:
One of the best features of company retirement plans such as 401(k) plans and 403(b) plans is that the contribution amounts are automatically taken out of a person’s paycheck each month, and then the funds are automatically invested in a pre-selected selection of funds.
Since it’s important to save outside of retirement as well for other goals, setting up an automatic withdrawal from a checking account to a savings or investment account is a smart move. First step is to determine how much to save each money based on cash flow and then set up a monthly or quarterly transfer. Once it is set up, it is out of sight and out of mind and the savings will grow.
It starts and ends with knowing where the money is going … It’s incredible what behaviors will change once people just know the truth.
Barry Glassman
Founder and president of Glassman Wealth Services
2. Manage overspending:
In order to get a handle on overspending, the first step is to identify the spending weaknesses. It could be household furnishings, electronic equipment, clothing, travel, or jewelry, etc. Then, write down how much was spent in the problem category. A good way to find the numbers is to look at the year-end credit card statements. Then, write down a number that is 20-30% below the amount spent in 2024 and make that a new budget and target for 2025. Track spending each month on a spreadsheet or app to keep the spending goal top of mind.
3. Stay invested no matter the headline news:
If the end of 2024 is any indication, 2025 is likely to be a turbulent year in the stock market. With a new presidential administration coming in, global wars, inflation and uncertainty around the projection of interest rates, that is much to worry about. But decades of history show us that the market will go up over longer periods and the smartest move a long-term investor can make is to keep investing and stay invested.
