There’s barely more than a week left until Christmas, so it’s time to focus on three things:
- The annual debate of whether Die Hard is really a Christmas movie (it is)
- Finishing up your shopping and wrapping of presents
- Making those year-end, tax-saving, financial moves
I solved #1 for you and can’t help you with #2. So that leaves us with #3.
After managing our own finances and rental properties and running this blog for years, I’ve learned that December isn’t just about maxing out credit cards on presents – it’s about maximizing tax benefits and setting yourself up for financial success. Here are the moves you should consider before the ball drops on New Year’s Eve.
1. Max Out Your Retirement Accounts
I’ve been writing that one so much that my hands just magically type it without thinking. However, I wonder how many people are really able to max out their retirement accounts these days. When I started my first job after college, the maximum 401k contribution was $10,000, and the maximum Roth IRA contribution was $2,000. My salary much great, but saving $10k of pre-tax and $2k of post-tax money was manageable. Now, the maximum 401k is $23,000, and the Roth is $7,000.
That’s almost three times as much as I was putting away. So, rather than maxing it out, I suggest you do what you can. While reviewing your 401k, you can adjust your withdrawal percentage and get a head start for 2025.
2. Harvest Tax Losses
Tax loss harvesting is when you sell stocks that have lost money and match them with those that made money. When you match them up, you can avoid paying the gains on those stocks that made money. With the S&P 500 up around 28% this year, I figured I had nothing to do.
Well, I found a bond fund (Vanguard’s BND, to be specific) that I bought a couple of years ago that had lost money. I sold those and a couple of shares of QQQ, the Nasdaq index that has almost doubled in the last couple of years.
The following two paragraphs are a bit technical about my specific trade. Feel free to skip over them unless you really want to learn about tax law.
Soon after I made the trade, I bought AGG, which is very similar to BND. I did some research and found out that most people believe that they are different enough to not trigger the IRS’ wash sale rule. The wash sale rule means that you can’t sell one security and buy a “substantially similar” within 30 days and still deduct the tax loss. What I learned is that the IRS has never defined what qualifies as “substantially similar.” That’s kind of crazy.
In any case, I realized that I sold a bond fund that would pay a lot of qualified dividends at the end of the year and bought a new bond fund that would pay unqualified dividends. Unqualified dividends are taxed at a higher rate. I may have outsmarted myself this time. I’m not sure if I’ll end up better off or not. At least it’s a small amount that’s not worth losing sleep over.
Okay, I’m done with that boring tax law stuff. One great side effect of tax loss harvesting is that it gives you a lot of cash that can be used to…
3. Rebalance your Asset Allocation
With the S&P 500 up so much this year and the bond index down, it’s possible that your asset allocation is off. Mine definitely needed some readjusting, which is why I reminded readers last month to Rebalance Your Portfolio.
4. Check Your Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
I’ve never had a FSA, so I’ve never written about them. For the first time ever my wife was able to contribute to a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (DCFSA) and we’re going to take advantage of that. It would have been a lot more useful a decade ago when our kids were babies, but it’s better late than never.
5. Consider Making Extra Mortgage Payments
Ever since the standard deduction was doubled in 2017, it hasn’t been worth it for me to itemize deductions. However, if you can itemize, making January’s mortgage payment in December lets you deduct that interest a year earlier.
6. Review Your Insurance Policies
Actually, this one doesn’t need to be done now. You are probably very busy this time of year. So check off this box (for now) by putting an annual review of your insurance policy on the calendar for early next year.
It’s also quite possible that it doesn’t save you money.
7. Update Your Estate Planning Documents
I spent most of this year trying to get an estate plan done and I couldn’t get it across the finish line. We had a chance to get it done just before the new year, but my wife had some work travel. I don’t feel comfortable doing estate planning without her.
8. Max Out Your HSA Contributions
Much like the FSA above, we’ve never had this option. My wife’s health plan with the military (TRICARE) is very good, so I have no complaints. If you have a HSA, it can be the holy grail of tax advantages – tax-deductible contributions, tax-free growth, and tax-free withdrawals for qualified medical expenses.
9. Make Charitable Contributions
This matters most if you are getting the tax deduction. As I mentioned above, not many people itemize deductions now that the standard deduction is so high. I decided to give it a look, and it seems like only 9.5% of people itemized deductions in 2020. If you are in that group, then this is the time to do it.
Another idea is to consider batching your charitable deductions so that you can itemize them. I learned about this reading, Mike Piper’s More Than Enough. If you give away $20,000 for 5 years in a row, you might not get any kind of tax benefit. However, if you donate 100k once and nothing in the other four years, you can get a big deduction.
And if have the kind of money where you can donate $20k or $100k, don’t be shy share a little with your favorite blogger – ?
As always, plan this out with tax advisor first. I only know a little about taxes, so I have my tax advisor do almost everything else.
10. Check Your Credit Reports
Nowadays, it seems like you can’t check your credit reports enough often. This past weekend, Rhode Island’s benefit plans had a huge breach. The state is still trying to figure it out, but it seems that anyone who was receiving any kind of assistance from the state had all their information stolen. It appears as if they got everything they’d need to potentially clear out a bank account. Scary stuff.
This is another item that can be done any time of year. Feel free to schedule this one for early next year.
11. Give to Your Future Heirs
The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 doubled how much individuals and married couples can pass on to their heirs before paying taxes. For many people, the old $5.6 million for individuals is more than enough. The TCJA made the new limit for individuals $11.18 million… but that expires in 2025. (Married Couples can do more, but I don’t know how often a married couple dies at the same time to pass on more.) It’s quite possible that Trump will either extend the TCJA or make it permanent, but no one knows what will pass with the national debt this high. It would be fair to say that anyone prioritizing paying down debt should look at maximizing income. That’s standard personal finance, but it applies to the country’s income (taxes) and the country’s debt as well.
It’s possible that readers of this website will bump up against those limits. If that’s the case, one way to lower your heirs’ future tax bill is to give money while living. You can give $17,000 a year to an heir tax-free. If you have a few heirs, that can add up over a number of years. If you are still married, you can double that. So a married couple with three future heirs could give away $102,000 a year with no tax consequences.
It may feel like that won’t make a dent, but over a number of years it can save your heirs from paying a big tax bill.
12. Review Your Subscription Services
Confession time! I don’t go through my credit card charges each month. I give it a quick glance to make sure that there’s nothing too big and unexpected on there. However, that means that smaller monthly charges can get past me. This is a good time to comb through the last 45 days of charges and see if I can trim some items.
This only gets more extreme when I think of “business” expenses. I had been paying for an email service that I hadn’t used in years. I also have way too many domain names that I’m not using. If you have a business, give it a good look and make sure all the services you use are really providing a solid Return on Investment (ROI).
13. Set Financial Goals for Next Year
I’ve started to make a couple of high-level goals for next year. For the most part, they are floating in my head. In the first few weeks of the new year, I’m putting them to paper and making them smart goals.
14. Organize Your Tax Documents
My tax people have already sent a list of important dates and documents for next year. The corporate tax deadline comes up a month early, so we have to work faster than most people.
This may not save you money, but perhaps you’ll discover something you missed in the list above.
Final Thoughts
Of course, not all of these moves will make sense to everyone. Everyone is in a different place in their financial journey and has their own financial situation. Although there’s not a lot of time left, consider talking to a financial advisor or tax professional before making major moves.
If you are feeling overwhelmed, it might be best to simply start with one or two items. Any progress is better than none.
What year-end financial moves are you planning to make? Drop a comment below – I’d love to hear your strategies.
