I wanted to provide three tools you can use for year-end planning.
I’ve been getting some questions from folks asking how they should plan for year-end.
- Should I change healthcare plans?
- Should I adjust paystub tax withholding?
- Do you think I should make any last-minute saving changes?
- What can I do today to minimize the tax burden for next year?
There’s a lot of great questions. Now I can’t be all-inclusive to come up with all the answers by email, but I get a lot of questions answered by providing a couple of items we had put together.
I’m a visual learner, and I think most other people are too.
Let’s start with your cash flow. Starting with income is a great way to get a valuable source of information on your reviewing cash flow. Paystubs give us insight into projected income, projected tax, how much you’re putting into 401k’s at work, etc. Paystub Review, and determining if more withholding is needed is a great exercise at the end of the year.
This flowchart is just a guide. The IRS has also posted a self-paced calculator we have referenced to be before:
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator
We should also consider if you can contribute to an HSA before the year is done. Assuming you have a high deductive health plan, HSA's provide a powerful way to access tax-advantaged savings.
When you’re considering adding to your emergency fund, paying different debts off, adding to savings accounts, or adding to retirement plans, knowing the best place to save can be subjective. Here’s a checklist to go through to help guide you through that decision-making process. This checklist is just a guide on what accounts to consider when you want to save more, of course there are more things to think of. It covers at a high level:
- Foundational Savings
- Healthcare Savings
- Retirement Savings
- Employer-Provided Benefits
- Business Owner Savings
- Accounts To Help Future Generations
- Tax-Deferred Insurance Options
- Other Account Considerations
I hope this is helpful. As always, please feel free to connect to think through these.
All the best,