Conducting A Personal Year-End Money Review #293

And so we're gonna talk about ways to do that effectively during this episode. Buddyeah, no doubt conducting a year end money review can be just really really helpful in assessing how you did and then helping frame, like you said, the upcoming year, like how are you're going to tackle

that when it comes to your finances. So we'll give you, in particular, five questions to think through in this episode that will really help you conduct that urine review, whether it's just you by yourself or whether it's you and a partner. And we'll get to that in just a second. But Matt, first I wanted to ask you a frugal or cheap, and we haven't done one in a minute. So is it frugal or cheap to have holes in

your socks? Oh? Man, okay, So for me, I'm gonna have to side, I think on frugal because for me, at least, the way my socks wear down, the way I get holes in my socks, I don't really notice when I get holes in my socks. It's not until I'm walking around with socks on inside the house and uh, it feels a little grippier that I realized that, Oh, that's my actual foot that's in contact with the with the hardwood floors, right, it's not the slippery sock on

the bottom. There's some actual points of contact happening between my foot and the floor. I think that's actually what I noticed, that I do have holes in my socks. Uh. And so for me, it doesn't necessarily take away from the function of my socks to have a few holes in it. So I'm gonna, yeah, I'm gonna side with frugal. So I don't really care. At what point do you discard your socks? And is there a point of no return where you're all right, this thing is done. I

need some new ones. When they're no longer functional. I think like if I if I'm wearing them and I've got a pair of shoes on, and i can tell that there's holes in my socks and it's kind of bothering me, I would then be willing to toss those in the trash, I guess, or you know, or put them in the rag box, you know, use it to wipe on the windows, whatever you do with them. But what about you? So I'm gonna say, you know, I probably would have been with you a few years back.

Maybe it was frugal to extend the life of something with holes in it. Um, I'm getting a little pickier about my socks not having holes. Like, so you know, you you got we got down the winter gear, you know, at the end of November in Atlanta, like you know, over Thanksgiving it was still like seventy degrees that you really winter socks. Yeah. So I'm starting to get into some socks that I haven't really worn much, and I'm like, oh, wait,

these have holes in them from last year. Um, and I don't mind tossing a few and maybe buying a new pack of socks. And you are such a socks knob, you got like one or two pairs of Bombas, and now you're like, I need to have nothing but bombas. Those are great times on my feet now, I I really it doesn't. I don't care, like honestly, brand typically, like I'm usually going to costco from my socks. Do your socks say Cirkland across the toe? No, I don't

think they do. I don't think so that would be awesome. But in particular, you can get some decent socks, what four pairs for ten bucks something like that. Um, And so I don't mind discarding a couple of the ones that are the holiest in getting something that are going to actually keep my feet forarm all winter long. So yeah, if they kept my feet from being warm, you know, if I felt like there's a lot of cold air shooting and you know, making my foot cold because there's

a hole, I would I would do that. But in my mind, it doesn't take away from the functionality. On a more embarrassing note, I've got I've got a lot of pairs of underwear actually with holes in them as well, and the same thing applies, like I don't even realize that they're there except that I can see them. But guess why, dude. Nobody else sees those holes except for Kate and the kids occasionally, and they like to make fun of me. They're like, Daddy, there's holes and your underwear.

And I'm like, yeah, so, but if it was affecting how they fit or you know, how they feel against my skin, yeah, then I'll definitely make it change. Okay, all right, Well, it's nice to know the weekn to come down on different sides of provoler. Cheap. I'm gonna say it's a little cheap to have too many holes in your socks. You know, maybe one small hole, it's fine, But once you get to level like three meaningful holes, like ditch them, get some new ones, and um, you

know it's socks are pretty inexpensive typically. Sure. Yeah, have you ever darned any of your socks? No? I haven't. No, I've never learned skill like eleanor Rigsby It told you, well, I mean it's like our grandparents generation. They would of course darn socks. But it talks are pretty cheap now, so you don't really have to darn them anymore. It seems like that might be a waste of time. I don't know. Yeah, maybe so it just depends. It all

depends on the individual. And actually we're gonna kind of talk about some of that this episode, but before we do, me on, let's talk about the beer on this episode. You and I are drinking a beer that is a part of Westbrook's fruit Wood and Time series and this one is a month Morency. Is that how you say that? I don't know mont Morncy or Montmorency and Balaton cherry. I don't know if I said either of those words correctly. So do two different kinds of cherry in this hour

by Westbrook. Looking forward to having this one on the show Man. Yeah, the one that we had on Monday that was similar to this so good. It makes me really look forward to this one. So me too, Me too. All right, let's get onto the subject in hand. We are talking about conducting a personal year end money review

and this is so important, right. Twenty twenty has been a whirlwind of a year, and um, we've all had to kind of cut ourselves some slack in some areas of our lives that have been majorly altered due to COVID. Some people, some of our listeners are working with a partner in a studio apartment, and they've never had to do that before. They're literally back to back working on computers,

and it's been a terrible experience. It's like Forrest Gump and Bubba, you know, they're they're sitting there in the mud in the trenches, working hard, back to back, and I'm sure it's been annoying, right, it's been frustrating. Um And you know, other people have had to do work from home while facilitating virtual school for one kiddo, two

kiddos or more. Also a really difficult experience. Is obviously produced a number of difficulties in our lives, and for many of us, it's also created some financial hardships at the same time, So we want to take that into account on this episode, while also prompting everyone to ask theirselves some important questions to see how your financial life

has fared over the past twelve months. So these questions will be helpful hopefully as you measure your progress and as you consider the financial goals that you want to achieve going into the next year into yeah, and and man, it's hard to know how to move forward right in the steps to take if you haven't reflected on the past. Um As we are reaching the end of the year, like there are probably still a lot of unanswered questions. That's a part of the world that we're living in

at the moment. But there are also some questions that you can ask yourself that will not only help you to realize that this year just wasn't a complete throw a year. Not only that, but it will also give shape to your plan for next year. And so I think of these questions as helping you to begin your financial year in review. Yeah, we mentioned early on that if you have a significan another, a partner, these are

great questions to discuss together, to go through together. Given how much of our lives revolve around earning, saving, and spending money, it's actually amazing how rarely some couples have conversations about their personal finances, and a year end review can actually be the perfect kickoff. If you guys haven't been intentional this year to discuss together, you might have a different perspective on some of these things, and that

can be good. Opposite attract typically right, and so um, you're not always on the same page with our partner, and actually diverging opinions in these conversations can be good and can spur us towards growth. But it's also really really good to get on the same page with your significant other so that you're working together towards the same goal as a team. Yeah, having a common goal super important.

And I'll be honest, man, having year end reviews and looking to the year ahead gets me super excited, like to turn the calendar, well not just to turn the calendar, but just to play into dream a little bit, you know, as far as like what are we gonna put our money towards and trying to organize it as best as we can. It's it's never perfect, right because life comes up and like things happen, there's always kind of pivots

and movements we have to make during the year. But the ability to sit down and to forecast and to think through it's like, Okay, this is what we want our life to look like a little bit, let's make sure we're putting our dollars towards that. So you know, for me to hear that, you know, there's some folks out there and they just haven't talked about money with

their significant other. Obviously you and I were money nerds. Uh, this is something that we talk about often, but for me in particular, when it comes to looking at the budget, I really geek out. And the reason, you know, you geek out because like we're talking about numbers here, right, Like we're talking about a budget, and so as you're looking at how this year has gone, Uh, it's helpful to have a record of your spending in front of you, right.

You know, budgets they are helpful, but depending on your level of commitment to your budget, all those numbers listed out in Excel, it might just be more of an aspirational goal than than your reality. Right. And so that's what's so great about software like Mints and Wine ad you need a budget is that the automatically track you're

spending for you. So even if you're overspending in certain categories and you feel like your budgets and shambles, it's still important to see where things are and what the reality actually is. You know, it's a way for you to pull your head out of the sand, and it'll add a level of concreteness. You know. This is especially helpful to when it comes to a conversation with your significant other that can oftentimes be difficult. Yeah, that's where I'm and I went wrong early on in our marriage.

In particular, it was not having the concrete numbers, and you know, I would be kind of an emotional spender or emotional saver, and that would prompt conversations in the moment which weren't really helpful. Um, we need to actually sit down and look at the facts and figures together in order to be able to have a rational conversation about the subject. Makes me think of the old running shoes story, that classic Joel and Emily story where Heavily was like, why don't you want me to have any

running shoes? Like why are you so cheap? I'm like, no, I do. I just want to get them on sales. Just get them on sale. Yeah, get the same shoes for a way less exactly. All right, So let's get into the questions. We literally have five questions we want to run through today that I think will help spur your year end money review that will give it some direction. Question number one is did I or did we reach

our financial goals? In did you have a dead payoff goal or an income goal you wanted to hit, or a savings goal that you were striving for. It's time to check in and see how you did. If you crushed those goals, then you should spend some time celebrating your achievements. We're actually going to have an episode in a couple weeks where Matt and I share the money wins from the How to Money community and we're going

to celebrate our community wins together. Celebrating those money wins in your house um as a couple, especially if you've had to overcome major obstacles, is a good way to head into the new year. Yeah, man, I'm really looking forward to that episode. And again, so the question we're asking here is did I reach my goals? And if you weren't able to meet those goals, it's important to ask yourself what held you back? You know, if the pandemic is your answer, like you know, you mostly get

a pass. Like we've discussed here, pandemic is a good excuse. It's not like the kid excuse, dog ate my home. It's a legitimate excuse for most people. A lot of things have come into our lives that you know, we couldn't have predicted, and you know, many of us were just trying to keep our heads above the water. Right. It's true that tens of millions of Americans have sought

unemployment benefits, you know, since the spring. But at the same time, we can kind of balance that a little bit, we can kind of couch it because you know, there's additional stimulus and benefits provided by the Cares Act, UH and that likely short up many Americans this past year. It's it's also a likely reason too as to why the overall credit card debt levels are actually lower right now than they've been in years. Yeah, according to stats

from the New York Fed. You have to go back to seen actually in order to see credit card debt levels as low as they are at the moment. That has been good news in a year fraught with bad news, right so um, Aside from the massive things that are taking place in our world, it's also important to look at did the different money moves that you made on a personal level, did you attempt to earn more or did you push for a raise when you could have or should have? And what did you do with that

stimulus check? Did you use it or did you spend it on widely? Did you peter it away on little purchases? And you don't actually maybe even remember where that money went to. Likely I can remember every single craft beer I've had this year. Well, you bought a bike with hers too, Right, that's definitely something I can point to. I felt like I was doing a you know, a decent job. They're supporting, are I? They had a nice bike on sale, but yeah, bike in the stove as well.

You know that something can and I are gifting to each other. I feel like those are my two splurge purchases this year. That but I can definitely point to those things, and both of those have brought a lot of joy to my life. Yeah, and that's helpful, right to be able to see where the money went, and if you kind of spent it, uh, frivolously, what kind of stinks because you could have potentially put that extra money towards, you know, a meaningful purchase, or towards pursuing

and achieving a money goal that you had. And so when you're looking at the specific money moves that you made in your life, and if you fell short of some of those goals, it's the perfect time to ask yourself the question why not to shame yourself or pile on with the fact that you weren't able to get to the place that you wanted to be, but to pinpoint the specific areas in which you could have done

better or where you did fall short. Maybe you fell into a habit of ordering way too much Uber Easter Grubhub, right, I mean that that was a pattern that certainly a lot of people fell into this year. But it's important to know that when you're doing your your in financial review so that you can make changes to prevent that from being the case again next year. Right. Yeah, And in the end, we have a lot more control over

our lives than we sometimes give ourselves credit for. You know, these questions that we're asking today can help inform the habits and the behaviors that we want to continue in one and we have several other questions that we're gonna ask on the show today, including other questions about our spending, and so we'll get to those right after the break. All right, we're back from the break. We're talking about

conducting a personal year end money review. This is so helpful as we get close to wrapping up we're moving into a new year. This is the time where you can ask yourself a few specific questions that will really help you see how you handled your money in and how you can do better next year. And question number two on the list that we think you should be asking is where did I spend money that brought me the most joy this year? Matt, you just named a couple of yours. You got the bike and the wood

burning stove. Those things brought a lot of joy. Yeah. Um, I narrowly missed out on an inflatable hot tub on Black Friday. I was aiming for that. That would have brought me a lot of joy. I was a little bummed that that that I missed out on that. One man, did we share on the show that you're thinking about doing that? I don't think we did. I was totally gonna be a redneck and have an inflatable hot time in my backyard, and I was okay with it. And

I was so bummed when you told me. You texted me right after you found out that they didn't have anymore. They had a limited supply. But I think it was one of those lost leaders. You know that they're trying to get folksed through the door or in your case,

like web websites. I think they almost no stock truly, Like here's five of them for the whole country, and you're competing thy million people in order to get these five um So, yeah, I did not get my discounted inflatable hot tub that would have been one of my top per um Yeah, where did you spend money that brought you the most joy this year? And also a secondary question along those lines is how did my spending

aligned with my values? This is something that's obviously incredibly important to Matt and I. We talked about it a lot on the show. Part of the reason we have a craft beer on every episode is because craft beer is a spending area in our budgets that does align with our values in a big way. We really like beer, at least in moderation. And before the break we touched on how our ability to earn and then put that money towards financial goals is so powerful and a great

way to self evaluate. But thinking through the different ways that we spend our money can be just as important too, Right, Even though savings goals are often related to spending, sometimes they can feel pretty far off and distant. So looking at some of the immediate and tangible ways that we spend our money, it's just another great question to ask

when it comes to a year end money review. And I think actually, Matt, it just reminds us of the purchases that we did make this year that mattered, And it is a great reinforcement that when we do spend

our money wisely, it pays off in a big way. Yeah, and I feel like this is a question we don't often ask ourselves, you know, like we don't often look back, We don't look to the past and evaluate work, just almost always looking forward, trying to improve, optimize, maximize, right, But it really is so helpful to see the areas where our spending has had a positive impact, you know. And so ask yourself, you know, did that Airbnb get away do the trick to help you to rest and relax? Sir? Yes,

the answer is us, you did. I'm glad to hear that. H Or like, maybe you bought something right, Maybe a new TV really did create some super awesome home movie nights when the movie theaters have been closed. If so, that's excellent. But write these things down or just call them out, point them out, so that you can connect that purchase to the positive results that it provided. It can even makes sense to put more money in the

budget towards the things that really moved the needle. For you in You know, we're not advocates of kind of this blind across the board, uh, spending cuts where it's just like, Okay, it doesn't matter what it is, we're gonna cut spending in all areas. If you want to do that. That sounds like a path to misery. You know, we're not looking for more deprivation in our lives. Instead, we're looking to maximize the enjoyment that we get from spending money in the areas of our life that matter

most to us. Yeah, I completely agree, Matt, And I think the way that you can funnel more dollars towards those things that you just named that you just called out that we're really important areas, Uh, where you spend money is two On the flip side, ask yourself the question what purchases or recurring bill felt like a total waste us this year? If it was a bigger purchase, it might be pretty easy to tag something as a

total dud. Like let's say I did get that hot tub and the inflatable hot tub just didn't work very well. That might be like, man, that was a waste of two bucks. Um. But the smaller regular expenses we have can make this a bit harder of a question to answer, right, So to get to the bottom of it, look at Mint like you mentioned Matt, or wherever you track your

spending and do some analysis. Or if you potentially buy a lot of items on Amazon, if that your go to place to order stuff, looking at your order history can be helpful. You can ask yourself what items aren't worth it now that you look back at your spending for the year, and then this can influence how you pair back your budget in order to then use your money in a way that aligns with your values even more, especially as we go into next year, well before we

move on. But because you brought up the hot tub again, it makes me think about like on Instagram, I can fed these like off the grid cabins or these tree houses out in the woods, like you know with hipsters, like with their legs, legs hanging off the drinking their coffee, that kind of thing. Their marketing to the right dade um. But I've seen these wood stove powered hot tubs, and so they're like he's yes, yeah, yeah, it's it's it's

basically the culmination of both the right interests. But they're kind of like these metal basins. I think they're like horse feeding cross or whatever. But they're like these giant metal tubs or galvanized steel, I think. And they've got a woodburning stove next to them, and the there's a pipe that runs from the hot tub and it kind of runs through the stove, I guess, and it runs back into the hot tub and it circulates the water. And you've got a hot tub and you've also got

a woodburning stove right there next to you. Uh So it kind of sounds like the perfect thing that you and I should go in together. One comba right there, Man, little tangent, little little side of it just kind of popped into my mind just then. But all right, let's

keep moving though. The third question that we want to make sure that we tackle this episode is one that pertains to time, right, and so the question we're gonna propose that you ask yourself is do most of my days look the way that I would like them to look? Up Until now, we've been focus seeing purely on money, but it is also important to evaluate how it is that we are spending our time. You know, until you're financially independent, time and money are closely related to one another.

You know, often adversely to each other. And the thing is, we can often find ways to make more money or to spend less money, but time, dude, it's truly a limited resource, and so it's important for us to evaluate this area in our lives as well. Yeah. So, so asking yourself how am I spending my time is a question that most of us don't typically ask, but it's a perfect question to ask in your personal year and review. Obviously, not every day looks exactly like we all wanted to.

I personally do not live a perfectly synchronized life. Matt, You and I we still have conflicts with our kids, our spouses, and each other, even though we're best friends. Sometimes say so just on occasion, it doesn't happen. Often I can see us arguing over the size of the hot tub, like no I want with the thirteen footage, jol. You know what I defer to you on size? I would I would um. And you know, some days are

busier than I'd like them to look. But ultimately, and truly, most of my days they do kind of look they in reflect what I want my life to look like. And so that's a great question for us all to ask ourselves, because there are changes that we can make, right because you might realize that that you wish you were home for dinner every night with the family, and that you're missing that currently, but that there's a change

you can make in order to make that happen. Maybe you can change that even right now with some small schedule tweaks, and if you can't work towards that being the norm soon, if that is a top priority in your life, and and there are all sorts of things that are going to come out when you're asking this

question about what your time looks like. Maybe even go back to an episode we released almost a year ago with our buddy five Am Joel where he talked about getting up at five am and how that has drastically changed his life. And that's the kind of thing that many of us could make a change in um but oftentimes maybe we're just a little too lazy or reticent to to make that happen. Yeah, that was a good one.

We'll make sure the link to that one in our show notes that episode were there with five Am Joel. But you know, it's important to make sure that we are spending our time and way that is consistent with our ideals and with our values. This is a great chance to think about how fulfilled you are and what your work days look like as well. You know, uh, do you need a change there? If so, think about

some of the best ways you could possibly pivot. It's easy to keep doing the same thing and never asking ourselves those introspective questions. You know, we keep our heads down, and it's typically not until something forces us to ask these questions, right, like a layoff, maybe some relationship problems, health issues. But the thing is, by then it's more of a crisis and we're merely reacting instead of intentionally

asking these questions of our own. Accord, I think when we ask these questions of ourselves, they kind of prod something in us. It allows us to truly focus on the things that mean the most to us. And hopefully we are spending our time that way and we're highlighting work here, right, But think about the other eight waking hours that you have. I know, for me personally, I've kind of recently been thinking through some of the chores and some of the like house projects I do around

the house. Obviously, it's the frugal thing to do, right if you do it yourself. Typically you're gonna save money, but like, think through what you're giving up by doing those things instead of maybe some other things that you value. The thing is, though, was so difficult for me, is I I personally get a lot of value out of working with my hands, out of seeing something that I've created or maintained or destroyed. Uh. And so there's a lot more to consider than just the cost of things.

I've been splitting a lot of wood recently in order to feed the stove. But I know when I do that, when I spend my time doing that, uh, you know, I like doing something with my hands. But it's also a good workout, man, Like, it's good for my back, and as I get older, I want to make sure I have a strong back. That way, when I'm rustling around with the kids and they run and jump on me, it doesn't like screw me up, break you exactly. It's just it's just something to keep in mind. It's not

about Okay, well, what's the most important. There are other benefits that we do receive from the different tasks that we're doing. Uh, And it's good to keep those things in mind as well. Yeah. Yeah, for me, when I

asked myself this question. I seriously like. The thing I come up with is I want some more time to play disc golf, and so, uh, that is just one of the places where I'm able to clear my head, you know, whether it's with a friend or it's solo walking around on a on a disc oflf course, chucking a disk. That is for me one of the things I find most relaxing, and I want more of that,

so I'm gonna make it happen. But there is a flip side, Matt to asking questions about, uh, the way we want our days to look, and we're gonna talk about that, plus a couple more questions you need to ask yourself in this year end review. We'll get to all of that right after this break. All right, we are back on the break and we are talking about conducting your very own personal year end money review. Jill.

You know, we were talking about how we we spend our time before the break, and you mentioned how there's a flip side. There is sort of like this darker side to where if we're only asking those questions and not thinking about, uh, just maybe the positives, if we're only focusing on the negatives, there's a chance it could maybe lead to some unhappiness. You know, it is important for us to find gratitude and contentment, uh so that

asking these questions doesn't just completely overwhelm us. Again, your days won't all aways look the way that you know you want them to, And it's okay to to work towards days that you know will look more ideal for you from a scheduling perspective. But it also really helps to simultaneously call out the good things so that your vision for a better future doesn't taint the good stuff that you currently have in your life. You don't want to be overly focused on the future that you're not

looking back to. You know, these winds to some of these successes, to some of the good things that you currently have in your life. I agree. I think the introspection is helpful. The looking for ways you can improve is helpful. Even wanting better or more is okay. But I think it's okay to one socks that don't have holes. It's totally okay to want socks that don't have holes.

And at the same time, though, it can take on, like you said, a dark angle where we're only thinking about the ways in which our life sucks and the ways in which we want it to be better, and that's not a healthy approach either, Matt. So yeah, that's it's a very very good point. All right. Let's move on to question number four that you should be asking yourself in this year and review, and basically that's how

do I want one to look different? And this question should certainly be looked at in a personal finance context. You might want to contribute more to your retirement accounts, or beef up your emergency fund, or increase the amount of money that you have in savings. But I think this question should also spur maybe an even deeper conversation about what you want your life to look like too.

I feel like we're getting a little existential here, Matt, But I think those desires are going to inform the changes that you can make now as well as like long term changes that you can be working towards. Two and that question of how you want next year to look different from this year? Obviously, hopefully no coronavirus is one way that we would all want to look different. Right of vaccine, that just brings our lives back to

more of a state of normalcy. But there are certainly a bunch of other ways that we can ask that question and get some interesting answers that can fuel some real change. I think as we head into Yeah, and you know, you joked about how this is like maybe borderline existential, but like it's also very practical, right because like up until now, we've been talking about ways that we are a sessing our lives, like we're we're looking back,

we're reflecting on the past. But the question you just asked and then the next one, they do have to do with looking forward. Uh, And that's kind of you know, where the rebber meets the road. You can reflect all you want, but if you don't actually take steps to make change, then well things probably aren't gonna look different next year than they than they do right now. And I've heard a lot of people say that the definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing hoping

for a different results. I don't think that's the actual definition of insanity, but it's also attributed to like lots of different people. Yeah, Einstein said it. I know, I'm pretty sure it was Plato, so I don't know if that's accurate, But it is one of those things where if you continue to keep the same patterns around that you've had for years in the past. Um, probably isn't gonna look that different in the ways that you might

hope that it would. But yeah, like we're what we're talking about here is thinking through like your big goals, your your big dreams. I'm actually excited next Monday, we're going to have a discussion with Rachel Cruz uh and I'm excited for her to share some of her thoughts about dreams and why it is that they're so important in our lives. But you know, asking these questions will demonstrate the reality that you have control over the direction

of your life and your money. Obviously, some of the things that affect us are very big, and we don't have control over those things, But there are so many things that we have control over on a personal level. It's why that's why this show exists. You know, we talk about personal finance. There's a reason we talk about personal finance and not societal finance or American finance. Uh. These are things that we can control on a personal level, and each one of us has the ability to make

those changes in our lives. Yea, and I think the twenty four hour news cycle and social media just essentially, the constant flow of um information coming at us makes it hard sometimes not to concentrate too much on things that are outside of our sphere of influence, outside of things that we can actually control, And so that's what we constantly want to bring it back to on this

show at least. Right there are other shows to talk about the bigger societal change that needs to happen, but this show is specifically focused on the things that that you can change in your own life. And so I think, yeah, tuning some of those things out a little bit more so that you can focus a little bit more UM on your own personal life, I think I will typically

that does breed more happiness at this time. So all right, man, let's hit the last question for this episode, the last question that people should be asking themselves in this year and money review. And I would say this is the most practical question as well, right, Like, like, the last question was good as far as like what do you want next to you to look like? But it's something

to get a little more practical with it. Yeah, let's do it so that the practical question is what are the biggest levers I can pull to positively influence my finances. And you're sitting down, you're reviewing all of this concrete information right you're earning, saving, and spending for this current year. It can be really easy to get bogged down in the details, especially if you have a significant other you're

going over this together. It could be tempting to start nitpicking, maybe nitpicking a purchase here or there that we made throughout the year that didn't quite hit the mark. But make sure that you're focusing your efforts on the bigger money moves that you can make too. It's not that those small things aren't important and don't reflect something that needs to be changed. It's just that the bigger things, the bigger money levers that you can pull, are often

going to have a far greater impact. And so those are the things that we should be maybe more focused on than the smaller things that just kind of missed the mark. Yeah, let yourself be distracted by those smaller things that you are missing out on some of these big opportunities, right, Like, I feel like a small one

that people point to is like the thermostat. You know, it's it's in the middle of winter, it's really cold, and people are like, Uh, I think we can take the heat down one more degree and that will allow us to save I think X amount of dollars every single month. Whereas the bigger question you should maybe be asking yourself as like maybe we should be living in

a more affordable city. Uh, that is the bigger move you can make, right Or I'm thinking about like keeping your tire pressure perfectly at the right p s I so that you maximize your fuel economy, you know, so you get the best miles per gallon. When instead maybe the bigger question you should be asking is maybe I should sell that vehicle altogether, Like we don't really need it. It's depreciating out there in the driveway. Let's sell it.

We all have a limited amount of time, a limited amount of bandwidth, and so when it comes to kind of choosing what it is that you are going to focus on, make sure that you are putting your effort in your throwing your weight behind the things that are going to make the biggest difference. Right. Yeah. And I think it can can be actually even helpful maybe to think of and pick a theme for your finances for the year. I like that maybe that theme can help

influence some of the decisions that you're gonna make. So is it maybe the year of massively increasing your income, Like you're gonna do whatever it takes to make more. Whether it's learn a new skill, asked for the rays, asked for promotion, um, moved to an entirely new industry, or something like that. Whatever it's gonna be, maybe that's the theme for you this coming year. Or is it the year of figuring out how to live legit frugally?

Like you have been a spendthrift and you haven't been able to get your spending under control, and so you have to learn all these frugal tips and you want to maximize every single one because you've kind of maybe mocked frugality a little bit in the past, um, and you thought you could always earn more, when maybe this

year that that's not completely the case. You are the one at the helm pulling the levers, though you get to make this decision at the smaller details are important down the road, but as we're approaching the new year, it's it's just so important to get these big things right. I think oftentimes Matt will find that the smaller things do take care of themselves when we get the bigger things in place. I've found that in my life that the mall mistakes that I make just really aren't of

all that much importance. Um, if I tended to the big things really well. And I think when people are asking themselves this question about the big financial levers, I think that's really really helpful. It's a good question to be asking, um as we're wrapping up and attempting to already start to make the most of the year that's coming up. Yeah, and so hopefully this has been an encouraging episode for folks. As folks are wrapping up the year, it's very easy to look ahead and to think about

the exciting things on the horizon. But I don't think you can do those things effectively with the proper perspective without having looked at the year that you've already lived. And so start with the goals and the earning and spending that you've done this year, and then armed with that information, then you can start to set some of those goals for next year. But man, let's go ahead and shift it back to the beer that you and I enjoyed this episode. I'm gonna let you say at

this time because I think I completely butchered it. But this is a cherry sour from Westbrook. Yeah, and it was aged in oak Barrel's. I'm not gonna go with them to avoid the name made a convention. I don't know there's any point in that. But yeah, Westbrook honestly one of our favorite breweries in the southeast. They're out of South Carolina, Mountain Pleasant, that's right. And yeah, this

cherry sour was delightful. It was pretty tart, strong cherry vibes, especially with like the two different kinds of cherry is going on, and then a nice little, like subtle soft oakiness at the same time. I love a good sour, especially a good cherry sour, and this one, man, this one was excellent. I loved it, dude, especially when that's been aged and oak. You know, Like I feel like I spent a lot of time talking about splitting wood

and how great it is earlier. But like, one of the things I also like about it is that aromatic perfume that you get from splitting up a fresh piece of beautiful white oak, you know, like it's it just puts off this beautiful smell and literally, as I'm out there splitting wood, it makes me think of these barrel aged sour beers and it makes me want to come and then drink one of them. Your mouth starts watering. That is not even joking, like that is completely true.

But yeah, we poured this one and it poured like a rusty rose color. It was really pretty. Uh And yeah, man, that beautiful bouquet of tart cherry was just so delicious. I'm glad this is the one that you picked up for us recently. Glad we got to enjoy it together on the show. Yeah, me too. All right, that's gonna

do it for this episode. For folks and want show notes for this episode, you can go to our website at how to money dot com and specifically, if you want all five of those questions listed out, they will be listed out in our show notes, um, and that can help you facilitate this year and money review for

yourself or yourself and your partner. That's right. And if you enjoyed this episode, found it helpful, and maybe you've been listening to the show for a while, we would love if you would head over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a solid review and rating over there. And if you've already done that, just let a friend know point them to an episode maybe like this, that allows maybe the two of you to start talking about money in ways that you can both kind of get ahead

with your money. And thanks in advance for that. So Joel, that's gonna be a buddy until next time. Best friends Out, Best Friends Out,