The 2025 Halftime Inventory

It is halftime! July 2nd marks the halfway point in the 2025 calendar year. This is a perfect time to check-in with your finances (and yourself as a whole), see how things have gone so far, and make adjustments for the second half of the year. If you made resolutions about your money at the start of the year, how have they gone so far – have you stuck to them? Are your savings and/or investment accounts higher or lower than they were six months ago? Are you happy with your progress? If any of the answers to these questions is “no,” you should consider making some changes to your lifestyle to help you reach your financial goals. Here are eight ideas on how you accomplish that:

1. Establish an automatic deposit into your savings and/or investment account. 

Consistent habits drive consistent results. Automatically contributing just $50 a week into your savings and/or investments between now and the end of the year would yield an additional $1,150 in contributions between now and the end of the year. If that’s easy for you to do, challenge yourself and increase that number – work hard to do more for your future self in the back half of this year.

2. Increase your retirement savings contributions by 1%.

Nudge your contributions upward by adjusting your employer plan contributions to save more each pay period. If you get a raise, adjust it so that the raise goes mostly or entirely into the retirement contribution so you live the same, but save more money doing so. 

3. Perform a spending inventory – where is all the money going?

Take a look at the last couple of months of spending and ask yourself for each line item “Is that a need?” You’ll likely find a number of subscriptions you don’t use much if at all, along with some online shopping and food ordering that you could easily cut out or cut back on. Then take the next step to actually cancel those services and have a lifestyle plan for how you will replace some of the discretionary spending. If the discretionary spending is caused by stress be it work or life, find ways to substitute the coping mechanism for a reaction that is more productive, like going for a power walk, lifting weights, reading a book, or cranking up karaoke to maximum fury like in Retsuko does in the animated show “Aggretsuko.” You drive your spending or your spending drives you – make certain you’re the one making conscious decisions in your best interests.

4. Spend sustainably.

When making purchases, buy with the idea of using an item over and over again rather than having a “disposable” mindset. Quality items tend to last considerably longer and save customers money over their cheaper, less durable peers. Take care of what you have, putting effort into storing and maintaining the things you have to stay in great shape. It is better for the planet AND better for your wallet.

5. Update your LinkedIn, resume, and attend a professional networking event.

The labor market is getting more challenging every single month as layoffs continue to mount in office jobs. Working on your career is critical both in defending your income and for long-term growth of your wealth. You should be updating your LinkedIn and resume every six months at a minimum, and you should at least quarterly be attending a professional networking event or industry convention to make new connections, network with peers, and potentially new and more lucrative opportunities. 

6. Pull your credit report and review it for accuracy.

No one appreciates a surprise when it comes to their credit score. You do not want to have to chase down some bad recordkeeping right before wanting to make a major purchase. If you haven’t looked at your report in awhile, this may be a good time to get your annual free credit report or review credit information from your bank or a platform like Credit Karma to make certain all of your information is up to date and accurate. You are your best line of defense against fraud and abuse.

7. Review your insurance policies.

This tip comes in two parts. First, make certain that what you believe is covered is in fact covered – that the amounts for your insurance coverage will actually replace everything you could lose in a house fire or car accident. This includes how much medical liability is being covered, which oftentimes is a hyper-low number by default on policies. All it takes is one person to have an accident without health insurance or a mistakenly low number on replacement coverage to create some real financial devastation for you. Second, check with a couple of other insurance providers to see if their rates, with the same lines of coverage, are just better than what you currently have. If the insurer is of excellent quality, the policies are sufficient, and you can save some money, then you may decide to make a switch – or go back to your existing policy and ask them to beat that quote. 

8. Trade high-cost activities for lower-cost ones.

Fancy vacations and trips are lots of fun, but they also generally mean spending lots of dollars. Consider adjusting your summer or fall vacation plans and stay more local. Explore the free or low-cost local entertainment and events. Check out the summer reading programs at your local library. Explore the local parks in your area. Volunteer in your community and help others in need. There are lots of satisfying activities you can do without having to spend a pile of money; get rid of the FOMO from IG and get in your community.