🎯 your 2025 money game plan
Bonus Q&A: How should I invest extra money after using my 401(k)?
Cutest car in Vero Beach photo taken by me!
Here’s what’s in today’s newsletter:
💭 My Thoughts: Your 2025 money game plan
❓ Q&A: How should I invest after using my 401(k)?
✅ Things To Do: MONEY CHALLENGE
🗞 In the News: Stay up to date on personal finance news
😎 What I’m Enjoying: A documentary, series, and health wearable
🎙 Recent podcasts: Dig into 890+ episodes in the Money Girl archive
🤣 Favorite GIF: Reply with your favorite GIF—it might get featured!
🥂 Happy New Year, Friend -
I hope you had some downtime over the holiday and are feeling recharged! My New Year’s money tradition is updating my Personal Financial Statement (get yours below!) to calculate my net worth, track my financial progress, and keep up with my money goals.
Since I need to gather my husband’s account data, I find a time that works for him when we can sit down and look at our PFS together. It’s an excellent way to keep us informed and working toward the same goals.
🎙 On Money Girl 889, What Should My New Year's Money Resolutions Be for 2025?, I review the following five steps for creating your 2025 money game plan:
1. Create or update your Personal Financial Statement (PFS).
If you haven’t already downloaded my free Money Success Toolkit, it includes your Financial Planning Workbook and Personal Financial Statement template.
2. Check your financial safety net.
As you complete your PFS, take note of your savings. Building it should be your top money resolution if you don't have a healthy cash reserve in an FDIC-insured savings account.
3. Review your retirement investments.
Since few people have guaranteed pensions or the desire or ability to work into old age, investing for retirement is an essential money resolution. Plus, the earlier you start, the less you need to invest due to the power of compounding. It's a huge mistake to believe you can't afford it or will catch up later.
4. Create a debt payoff plan.
If you're struggling with debt or want to get rid of it faster, make that a money resolution. Consider enrolling in my best-selling course, Get Out of Debt Fast—A Proven Plan to Stay Debt-Free Forever. It guides you through every detailed step of creating a realistic payoff plan.
5. Set a financial word or theme for the year.
Finish this sentence: 2025 will be the year of ________________.
My money theme is "retirement savings." Setting a money theme for the New Year can shift your mindset, motivate you, or be a guide when you're unsure what to do.
Your word or phrase for the year could be financial freedom, self-employment, early retirement, family future, or anything that supports your financial dreams.
🎧 Listen to the podcast or 📖 read the transcript for all the details!
❓ On Finance Friday shows, I answer your money questions! This week’s topic comes from Bobbie, who says:
"This year, I cut back on my expenses so I could afford to max out my 401(k) for the first time. Next year, I'm fortunate to be getting a promotion and salary increase. So, I plan to max out the account again. But how should I invest extra money after using my 401(k)?"
🎙 Find out my answers to these great questions in Money Girl 890, Where Should I Invest After Maximizing a 401(k)?
📖 As always, you can listen to the show or read the transcript.
MONEY CHALLENGE: Get familiar with 2025 tax changes using a Cheat Sheet!
Check out this downloadable summary of IRS data for tax and financial planning from The College For Financial Planning.
🗞 Mortgage rates reached the highest point since July, with the 30-year loan just over 7%, which is higher than it was this time last year.
➡️ TAKEAWAY: Despite the Fed’s rate cut in mid-December and higher mortgage rates, higher pending home sales mean that Americans are getting used to elevated rates.
🗞 Mapped: Income to join the top 1% by state shows West Virginia as the lowest at $420,000 and Connecticut as the highest at $1.2 million.
➡️ TAKEAWAY: The median U.S. income is about $75,000, but it takes more than ten times or $788,000 to be in the top 1% of earners nationally.
🗞 Most states have tax changes for 2025, including nine cutting individual income taxes and three cutting corporate income taxes.
➡️ TAKEAWAY: While the federal income tax brackets remain unchanged in 2025, many states are creating competitive tax codes to promote stability and growth.
🎥 The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart is an HBO rockumentary about the rise of this legendary band and the evolution of their writing and music. Brothers Barry, Maurice, Robin, and Andy Gibb rose to fame in the 1960s, writing over 1,000 songs, including 20 No. 1 hits. It’s one of the best documentaries I’ve seen, with an incredible perspective from Barry Gibb, the family’s only band survivor.
🎬 Interior Chinatown is a Hulu action-comedy series based on the showrunner Charles Yu’s award-winning novel of the same name. The show stars comedians Jimmy O. Yang and Ronny Chieng. Jimmy plays Willis, a Chinatown waiter who witnesses a crime, gets thrust into the spotlight, and starts uncovering family secrets. It’s an engaging premise that plays with Asian-American stereotypes in a fun way.
🖖 Oura Ring is a smart ring that collects and analyzes health data—like your activity, stress, recovery, heart rate, temperature, blood oxygen, and sleep—using infrared LEDs that transmit data wirelessly to a smartphone app. I’ve been wearing one for a few years and love that it automatically detects and logs my workouts and gives me daily scores for readiness and sleep, so I know what to improve. Click this link for 10% off and get support on your health journey and 2025 resolutions!
🎧 890: Where Should I Invest After Maximizing a 401(k)?
🎧 889: What Should My New Year’s Money Resolutions Be for 2025?
🎧 888: 5 Most Popular Money Girl Topics of 2024
🎧 887: This New Rule Makes Tapping Retirement Savings Easier
🎧 886: 5 Money-Saving Tax Changes for 2025
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