The end of the year makes us reflect on everything - trips taken, goals hit or missed, relationships that grew or faded. But money? Most people would rather not look.
There’s a reason for that. Reviewing your finances can feel like stepping on a scale after the holidays. But not knowing is worse. Not knowing means repeating the same patterns, wondering again where all the money went, and setting next year’s goals based on wishful thinking instead of reality.
A year-end financial review isn’t about guilt or judgment. It’s about gathering the information you need to make next year different - if you want it to be different.
Before You Start
Grab a pen and a piece of paper.
These questions are designed to surface things you might not have thought about clearly before. Some will be easy. Others might require you to check a bank statement or sit with an uncomfortable number.
As you go, write down your answers - or at least your best guess. By the end, you’ll have something more valuable than a finished article: a snapshot of where you actually stand, in your own handwriting, ready to inform whatever you decide to do next.
1. Did I Spend More Than I Earned?
This is the question that matters most, and the one people avoid longest.
Add up everything that came in this year - salary, side income, any other sources. Then add up everything that went out. If the second number is bigger than the first, write that down. No judgment here - life happens, emergencies happen, inflation happened. But you can’t change what you don’t measure.
If you’ve been tracking expenses throughout the year, you likely already have this answer. If not, your bank statements can get you close.
Write down: Total income. Total expenses. The difference.
2. How Much Did I Actually Save?
Not how much you planned to save - how much actually moved into savings and stayed there?
Compare your savings and investment account balances from January 1st against today. The difference tells the real story, not your intentions.
Some people find they saved more than they expected. Others discover their savings account became a holding tank they dipped into regularly. Both are worth knowing.
Write down: Your total saved this year.
3. What Was My Biggest Expense Category?
Not your largest single purchase - your largest category across the entire year.
For most people, housing takes the top spot. That’s expected. But what comes second? Third? Food, transportation, subscriptions, shopping - the answer varies, and it’s often surprising.
Daily spending tends to feel invisible in the moment. A few dollars here, twenty there. But when you add up a full year, patterns emerge that weren’t obvious before.
Write down: Your top three spending categories, if you know them.
If You Don’t Have the Data
If you’re realizing you can’t answer the questions above with any confidence - that’s okay. You’re not behind. You’ve just discovered something important.
Not having answers isn’t failure. It’s information. It tells you that this is exactly where tracking could help. Even three months of expense data would give you more clarity than most people ever have about their money.
The remaining questions are easier to answer from memory. Keep going - and keep writing.
4. What Purchase Do I Regret Most?
Most people can answer this one immediately. It’s the thing gathering dust in a closet, the subscription that seemed like a good idea at the time, or the purchase that felt necessary in the moment but wasn’t.
This isn’t about self-criticism. It’s about noticing patterns. Do your regrets tend to be impulse purchases? Things bought on sale that you didn’t truly need? Purchases made to impress others or meet expectations?
Recognizing what triggers regret makes it easier to pause next time.
Write down: Your biggest regret purchase - and why you think it happened.
5. What Was My Best Financial Decision?
Don’t just focus on mistakes. The wins matter too.
Think about this past year: did you negotiate a raise or a better rate on something? Pay off a debt? Set up automatic transfers? Cancel subscriptions you weren’t using? Walk away from a purchase you would have regretted?
Whatever it was, it’s worth remembering. Knowing what worked makes it easier to repeat.
Write down: One or two wins from this year.
6. Did Any Subscriptions Slip Through?
Studies show that people consistently underestimate their subscription spending, often by 2-3x. These charges are designed to be forgettable - small amounts, automatic billing, no friction.
It’s worth pulling your statements and searching for recurring charges. Streaming services, apps that converted from free trials, memberships you haven’t used in months - they add up faster than most people expect.
Write down: Any subscriptions you forgot about or no longer use.
7. How Much Did I Pay in Interest and Fees?
This question can be uncomfortable, but the answer is useful.
Add up any credit card interest, loan interest, bank fees, overdraft charges, and late payment penalties from the past year. This is money that didn’t buy you anything - it simply left.
A single late fee is easy to overlook. But if the same fees keep appearing, it might point to a timing or system issue worth looking at.
Write down: Your total interest and fees paid this year.
8. Did I Make Progress on Debt?
If you carry any debt, compare your balances from January to now. Did they go down? By how much? Is your payoff timeline still on track, or has it stretched?
If your total debt increased this year, that’s useful information for thinking about next year.
Write down: How your debt changed - up, down, or flat - and by how much.
9. What Financial Goal Did I Completely Ignore?
Almost everyone has a goal they intended to pursue and then quietly set aside. Building an emergency fund, contributing more to retirement, paying off a specific balance, learning about investing - the specifics vary, but the pattern is common.
The useful question isn’t whether you ignored something. It’s why. Was the goal unrealistic from the start? Was there no concrete plan attached to it? Did more urgent expenses push it aside?
Understanding why a goal stalled helps you decide whether to approach it differently next year or let it go entirely.
Write down: The goal you ignored - and your honest guess at why.
10. What Do I Want Different Next Year?
This is where reflection turns into intention.
Look at everything you’ve written down. What’s one or two things you’d genuinely like to change? Not ten things - keeping the list short matters. Too many goals usually means none of them get real attention.
The more specific you can make it, the easier it becomes to follow through. “Track my spending for three months” is more actionable than “be better with money.” A clear target gives you something to measure when you sit down to do this again next year.
Write down: One or two specific things you want to be different.
What You Have Now
Look at your notes.
You have a clearer picture of this year than you did before you started. Maybe some of it is uncomfortable. Maybe some of it is better than you expected. Either way, you now have something to work with - not vague feelings about money, but observations you can build on.
Clarity beats guessing, even when the answers aren’t what you hoped for.
Making Next Year Easier
If parts of this review felt like guesswork, they don’t have to next year.
“I don’t know where my money goes.” Start with a Monthly Expense Tracker. It’s the simplest way to see what’s actually happening - just record what comes in and what goes out.
“I can see where my money goes, but not where it should go.” A Monthly Budget Template adds planning to tracking. Set targets, see how reality compares, and adjust as you go.
“I want to see the full year, not just month to month.” The Annual Budget Template gives you the year-long view - what you planned for each month versus what actually happened. It works well on its own, and even better alongside a monthly template.
You don’t need all three. Pick the one that matches where you are right now.
A year from now, when you come back to these same questions, the answers will come easier - and we hope they’ll be better than this year’s. When that happens, we’d love to hear about it.