I love January. I know that makes me a weirdo but I really embrace the clean, new and cozy aspects of the month. Unlike Ohio where I grew up, the DC area has a milder winter that’s often sunny. Ohio’s Januaries are often dingy and grey.. Not here. Plus the DC area is super wimpy when it comes to snow, so snow days are sometimes abundant in the dead of winter.
Today I thought I’d share some things that I do to start the new year. I hope you find it helpful!
All of my condo fees for the year.
If there’s one thing I hate more than anything, it’s paying condo fees. Before I came up with this plan, I used to pay monthly… and forget at least twice a year, resulting in annoying late fees. While I certainly appreciate all that my HOAs take care of (trash removal, water, snow removal, landscaping, etc.), for some reason cutting that check is so irritating to me. This way I cut one check in January, and am able to forget about it for the year. Badda bing.
I max out my Roth IRA
Now, this is certainly not prescriptive advice as many financial planners would tell you to stagger IRA payments throughout the year, but I prefer to send over $6,000 early in the year so I don’t have to worry about the monthly withdraws. I also like that I’m able to (hopefully) get as much money in the market early on (January is often pretty slow after recovering from the holidays) in the hopes that it continues to go up throughout the year.
I put aside a fair amount of money in case I owe taxes.
This isn’t necessarily only a January habit, but I find that I often owe taxes and stash cash in my HYSA to get on the right side of it.
I pay my mortgages at least a month early.
There is precisely zero financial reason to do this other than my peace of mind, but it’s nice to have a little buffer in case I don’t want to pay my mortgage for a month.
I start a new spreadsheet to track client payments.
PSA- Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, etc. are going to be sending out K-1099s at the end of 2022. While I’ve done a decent job of tracking client payments in past years, it’s essential that I be scrupulous about it this year. I’ll be filing quarterly, which alleviates the stress a little bit, but it’s good to have all the numbers in front of me.
I take an assessment of any possible major purchases of the year and save accordingly.
Is my car running OK? When might I need a new one? Tires? How are they? How about my household appliances? Are they getting old or will they all be OK for the year?
I make a plan for travel and plan to save accordingly.
Travel is up in the air this year.. No pun intended. While I’d love to go back to Europe, I do not want to financially support countries that are trying to oppress their people… So I’ll likely be staying in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave… But, alas, the USA can be expensive! I’m hoping for a fall New England trip.
What do you do to start the new year strong?
