The year is half-over. It’s a perfect time to schedule a time to complete a mid-year financial review. Here are five things you may wish to add to your agenda!

1.) Spending and savings plan – If you took my advice at the outset of the year, you have a rough plan in place in regards to how much you would save this year (and as a result, how much of your earnings you will spend). With half the year in the rear view mirror, it’s a good idea to revisit those calculations. It is not too late to boost savings – or to revise your goal if you are ahead of schedule. And if you are over-savings, perhaps you want to treat yourself to an unplanned trip or purchase!

2.) Retirement savings – As a reminder, retirement savings accounts have limits which are set on a calendar year basis. For 2024, IRA limits at 7,000 and 401k limits are 23,000 (excluding catch-up contributions). If you have the ability, reaching those limits each and every year is a great start towards funding retirement goals since they are “use it or lose it” limits that don’t rollover to the next year. You can check your progress towards employer-sponsored plans (like 401ks) by pulling your recent pay stub which will show your YTD contributions. IRAs are funded thru a broker dealer and you can track status via transactions tab or a recent statement. Even if you don’t want to fund an IRA now (since they are contingent on income earned in the year), you can put the cash away for safekeeping until income is known.

3.) Cash levels and placement – Having cash on hand for emergencies (a reserve fund) or upcoming known expenses (like a renovation or estimated tax payments) is a very wise strategy. As life has evolved over the first half of 2024, it’s possible your cash balances have either declined below your desired levels or grown to contain excess. Review your cash balances vs. your cash needs and consider making the necessary adjustments (by diverting some savings to reserves to replenish them or by moving some cash from cash reserves to longer-term savings).

While you’re reviewing cash balances, it is also a helpful exercise to review where cash is placed. For the past few years (and likely for another 6-12 months before the Fed lowers rates), there is a very significant difference between the interest paid in various cash and cash equivalent accounts. It’s never too late to take advantage of strategic cash sorting but keep in mind, the time to do so is likely now as rates will soon begin to come down.

4.) Check in on taxes – I realize many of us just finished (or have yet to finish) 2023 income tax returns, so it may feel like it’s too early to even think about 2024 taxes. However, as we pass the 50% marker, it’s a good time to do a high-level check. If you are employed by a company, review your most recent pay stub (and your spouses) to see how much you’ve paid in thus far. Compare this to your estimated total tax liability (there are many great online calculators to help you compute this amount). If you are self employed or retired and making estimated tax payments, compare your YTD payments against your safe-harbor estimate or estimate of actual 2024 exposure. Any adjustments can be made in the remaining two quarterly payments.

You can also use this check-in to determine if any tax strategies make sense for the remainder of the year, such as increasing your charitable contributions, completing a Roth conversion, or switching your 401k contributions from traditional to Roth.

5.) Progress on big goals – Did you set any large goals for 2024? A few of my clients set out to update estate planning, while others hoped to open college savings plans for their kids. If you did make a list of objectives for the year, see if you can check anything off. And if not, perhaps you can tackle a few of them yet this year.

Hopefully this lists gives you a few helpful tips to do a mid-year money check-in!

Onward we go,