Year-end money review checklist
Built to catch what a monthly budget misses — the drift over a whole year rather than the pattern of a single month, checked once and set to repeat the same time next year.
15 items
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
The items
- Bank and card statements pulled together for the full year
- Total income added up from every source
- Spending grouped by category to see where the year actually went
- Subscriptions checked against what's still genuinely used
- Savings progress checked against the target set at the start of the year
- Debt balances checked against where they started the year
- Pension contributions reviewed, including any employer match
- Tax position checked, including any allowance not fully usedSome allowances don't carry over — unused by the deadline usually means gone.
- Insurance policies reviewed against current needs and price
- Interest rates or terms on savings checked against what else is available
- Big purchases from the year reviewed for what was worth it
- Goals for the coming year set with an actual number attached
- A budget adjusted for anything that changed during the year
- Financial documents filed or archived before the new year starts
- A date set for the same review next yearAn annual review only works if it's actually repeated, not done once and forgotten.
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
Questions people ask
- What's the point of a year-end review if a monthly budget already exists?
- A monthly budget catches the regular pattern; a year-end review catches the drift — a subscription nobody uses, a rate that's no longer competitive, a goal quietly abandoned in March.
- What allowances are worth checking before the year ends?
- Anything with a use-it-or-lose-it deadline — some tax and savings allowances don't carry over, so checking before the cut-off is the only chance to use what's left.
- How long should this actually take?
- An evening, with the statements already pulled together. Most of the value is in doing it at all, not in doing it exhaustively.