Some Easy Financial Tips for the End of 2021

Well, hello again, intrepid money-pals! This is Daniel, and I’m here with some of the End-of-Year steps I’m taking to get myself feeling bright and shiny and secure in my spending as we barrel on into 2022! A little background on me: I’m a lifelong theatre and literature kid who is just dipping their toes into the personal finance pool for the first time. I’m so excited to learn about an area of life which has always really intimidated and saddened me. As Schoolhouse Rocky wisely said, Learning is Power! 

Spending notebook! (Finally!) 

My spending habits are extremely haphazard, which I think is common, but especially so when you don’t have a lot of money! In my personal experience of money scarcity, any potential purchase falls into either the category of: “Oh, I need new pants. But they’re so expensive! I can’t do it! I’ll just keep wearing these until they literally fall off of my body.” OR: “MONEY IS A CONSTRUCT, HUMANITY IS A CONSTRUCT, I’M SO STRESSED OUT, I HAVE TO BUY THIS SCENTED CANDLE.”

I’m finally tracking my own spending to get a better idea of where my money actually ends up! (Spoiler alert: It’s definitely coffee and pastries, BUT STILL.) 

So much reading!

As a once and forever lit nerd, this is probably my favorite thing I’m doing! I love required reading, y’all! 

The first books on my list have all been in Erin Lowry’s Broke Millenial series. Erin writes in a very friendly and approachable style and always offers tangible action items within her chapters. So far I’ve read her first two books Broke Millenial and Broke Millenial Takes on Investing, and I’m super excited to begin her third and most recent book Broke Millenial Talks Money.

Finding cool personal finance blogs for quick, daily consumption!

If you don’t have the time or spoons right now for a full book, that is totally okay and understandable! You can still make something like your IG feed a bounty of awesome personal finance knowledge. For example, @thebrokeblackgirl has an awesome list of simple financial tips for December.

Check out this handy blog post for more suggestions of great bloggers to follow!

Fewer unnecessary subscriptions = more funds for holiday gifts! 

Something else I think is worth doing at this time of the year (or whenever it strikes your fancy, really) is to go through your budget and double check that you haven’t subscribed to anything which ended up not being super useful.

For example, I cancelled my premium DuoLingo membership, which broke my nerdy heart, but it’s really not so bad to get an ad or two in the middle of my German education. Wirklich!

If you don’t have a budget spreadsheet, no worries: go back through recent bank statements to do some sleuthing and make certain you’re not still paying for something that no longer serves you. 

Get your debt numbers together. (Take a deep breath.)

If you’re not already organized on your numbers, check out this free spreadsheet template from Vertex42 and start to get organized. Make some coffee/tea/cocoa and go through all those credit card statements and student loan accounts.

It’s super okay if not everything is something you feel you can solve today or even this month; getting organized and making plans now will help you go into the new year with some liberating awareness of how to best take care of your financial self. 

You got this!