2025 is only four months away! Don’t wait to start planning for next year’s financial goals.
In today’s episode, I share three ways to prepare for Q4. From budgeting for the holidays to planning for open enrollment and thinking about Fall activities, I encourage you to start planning ahead for Q4.
The end of the year can feel like one of the most expensive times of the year but taking 30 minutes to adjust your financial plan can leave you feeling prepared. Taking the time to plan ahead will help you adjust your budget categories, shift your spending habits, and save money for things that are coming 30, 60, or even 90 days from now.
Tune in to learn three financial tips to prepare for Q4:
- [01:15] Planning for holiday expenses
- [06:55] Thinking about open enrollment
- [11:57] Pre-holiday events & fall expenses
- [13:25] Reflecting on the year and making adjustments
Tune into this episode of Money Files to learn three ways to prepare for Q4 and stay on track to hit your 2024 money goals.
Are you ready to start asking for help with your finances? Apply to work with me, and let’s start working towards your financial goals.
If you loved this conversation about Financial Preparedness: Three Ways to Plan for Q4 Expenses, check out my episode, Why Reviewing Your Finances During Open Enrollment Season Will Set You Up for Financial Success Next Year!
Transcript for “Financial Preparedness: Three Ways to Plan for Q4 Expenses”
Intro: Hi and welcome to Money Files. I’m Keina Newell from Wealth Over Now. I work everyday with professional women and solopreneurs to help them get out of financial overwhelm and shame so they can experience more flexibility and ease with their finances. Are you ready to gain confidence and learn to manage your finances intentionally? Tune in and grab financial tips that will help you master the way you think about and manage your finances.
Keina: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Money Files. So I hope none of you get mad at me today because I want to give you just the real of everything. 2025 is in four months. Not really sure how we got here, but yeah, I don’t want you to wait until 2025 to start making some goals. I want you to use these last four months to really think thoughtfully about Q4. So we’re approaching the end of Q3 and I wanted to help you think what are the financial things that I can be planning ahead for? I am all about helping my clients plan ahead and I want you to start planning ahead because it’s going to make the difference in between you feeling prepared and unprepared. And so now is a great time to help you start feeling prepared.
So the first thing I actually want you to do is I want you to think about the holidays. Once again, I said I apologize if I am just pointing out way too many things about what’s getting ready to come up in between now and the end of the year. So I think this time of year, the holidays are the most expensive time of the year and I have clients from varying and different backgrounds. So I am not even just talking about Christmas, I’m not just talking about Thanksgiving. I think regardless of where you live in the world, regardless of like religious beliefs or any of those things, this time of year can be really expensive or you have a time that’s similar to this where you are and it can be expensive.
So I want this time of year to not feel expensive to you and regardless whether you started planning at the beginning of the year or you are just now starting to plan right now is a great time to actually reflect on where am I when I think about what I want to be able to spend money on for the holidays? And let me be really clear when I talk about holidays, I’m generally talking about the beginning of November until the New Year because people are traveling, you are hosting, you are going to different events. And so I need you to have that perspective because it is going to shape how you think about spending money. So as you think about the holidays, I want you to think about, especially now that we’re closer, I think sometimes we can’t visualize where we are when I ask this question for people in like May, they’re like, I don’t know, Keina, but hopefully now that we are almost to September, some things have already started to pop up on your calendar or maybe you’re starting to even get ideas.
So I want you to think about this year, what events do I foresee myself attending or hosting? Who do I see myself buying gifts for? Is there any travel that I’m going to be doing? And so I want you to just write an exhaustive list for yourself and then I need you to attach numbers to it. If you know that you are going to buy gifts for grandma, grandpa, you got two nieces and nephews, one brother, mom and dad, and that’s seven people, then I need you to think about how much am I spending on each person? Do I already have a gift for that person? Because maybe you’re somebody who plans in advance and I need you to get a number for your gifts. If you know that you are going to be hosting Thanksgiving or you’re going to be hosting Christmas or some other event during this time, I want you to be thinking about how much money do I think I’m going to spend, whether it’s decorations, food, what does that actually look like?
And the reason I need you to have a number for that is like sometimes people think, oh, I’m just going to use my grocery budget. And that’s not true because you’re going to buy groceries in addition to hosting people. Even if you told yourself we’re going to eat leftovers, no, you’re going to buy additional groceries in addition to hosting yourself. So if you know like I’m hosting and maybe it’s going to be $600, $800 or $1000, but actually like getting a number on that. So if you know for instance, okay, I got all my numbers together Keina and I’m going to spend $2,000 for the holidays, that’s really helpful because I just told you we got four months, three and a half kind of before the holidays are all said and done with. But that means that if you were going to adjust your budget, if you have saved zero so far, then your goal in between now and the end of the year is to save $500 a month towards the holidays.
If you are like, okay, I already have a thousand dollars saved, then your goal is going to be, let me make sure that I continue to save $250 a month and I know that I’ll hit my $2,000 goal. So probably talking really fast and you’re thinking, how are you coming up with these numbers? But just, if you haven’t saved anything, you’re going to take the amount that you think you’re going to spend for the holidays, you’re going to divide that by four and you’re going to put that in your budget. If you already have some amount of money saved, you are going to take how much you think you need, subtract what you’ve saved and divide that by four and put that into your budget. Just because you put it into your budget doesn’t mean that it works. So you might have to adjust and shift some numbers around if you realize that okay, $500 a month, it’s a little bit too much for me to save.
So is there some wiggle room either in what you’re willing to spend or is there wiggle room in your other parts of your budget where you could contribute more towards saving for the holidays? So that’s one of the things that I want you to do to prepare for Q4 in the end of 2024 as we go into 2025. The next thing that I want you to do is I actually want you, and you guys are going to be like, wow, you are really the money lady, is I actually want you to start thinking about your benefits, your health benefits. So I want you to start thinking about dental and I want you to start thinking about healthcare. I actually have a podcast episode I want to say from maybe like two years ago where I talked about this a little bit more. But this is actually one of those things that I think can be off your radar.
And then open enrollment season comes and just like everyone, everybody is confused or like, I have no idea, I don’t know. So I’m trying to put it on your radar a little bit earlier this year and I want you to think about it. The things I want you to think about are what life events are going to be happening for you? What happened this year in your life? Maybe you found yourself going to the doctor a little bit more. Maybe you hired a therapist this year or maybe your dentist has told you in the next six months to a year you’re going to need a lot of dental work, whatever that might be for you. Or maybe you’re even thinking about having a baby and starting a family. I want you thinking about these things because they’re going to shape open enrollment.
Your employer is going to send you the plans and they’re going to tell you, we need you to select a plan for 2025. And I want you to know your health status, for lack of a better word. I want you to know how much did I spend out of pocket on copays? How much did I spend on medication? Do I think I’m going to have a year that’s similar to the one that I had this year? I want you to know these things because it’s going to help you select the best plan one. And also going to help you decide how can I leverage using a flex spending account or a health savings account. So your flex spending account is an option for you to be able to put money aside in advance so you can get that money pre-tax and use it pre-tax. Your health savings account is similar except for it goes with high deductible plans and it rolls over from year to year to year and you can use it until you’re like, 120 years old. But it’s just another great way to take advantage of like I have this vehicle at work where I can put money to the side and save for my medical expenses or my dental expenses, especially when you’ve taken the time to think about what’s coming up for you with your healthcare or your dental.
I think I’ve shared this on my podcast before, I mean this has been over 10 years ago now, but I got LASIK surgery and one of the things that I did was I maxed out my FSA at the job that I had. I maxed it out. I used my FSA money to make sure that I could take care of all my LASIK eye surgery. I think it was actually like $5,000, so it took care of half of it, but that was something that I knew was strategically happening in the next year. And so I made sure that when it was open enrollment season that I accounted for that. Also, I feel like ever so often I will have to have a filling field. I’ve had root canals I should say. And so like I know my teeth pretty well and so I’ve always been able to think preemptively about my dental needs and putting money aside because the truth is I’m going to spend the money either way.
I like to put it to the side and put that pre-tax, but it’s just another opportunity. Like I said, if you know that something is coming up healthcare wise that you can start to think about it, you might be like, why are you talking about this as a money coach? And it’s another aspect of your life to pay attention to because medical expenses can be something that I think you get flustered by. I always tell clients like call and ask them to give you an itemized bill before you actually go in for a procedure. I would say to you also, if you are someone who’s like, Hey, Keina I actually know that I have certain procedures coming up this next year. You could even call and ask their billing department, can you tell me like if this insurance, like which one would have better coverage for this procedure?
Don’t feel bad about it, do it because at the end of the day, it’s going to make you more financially prepared for whatever might be coming up for you personally. So that is one of the other things that I want you to do to prepare for quarter four and the end of 2025 is like look at your benefits. And then I also talked about holidays. The other thing I want you to do as you go into quarter four is I want you to look at events. So these are the events that are going to happen pre-holiday. I have a lot of clients who I think enjoy celebrating the fall. And I think it’s just a great, because it’s like, I think when seasons change, our activities change. And so just really think about how am I going to be spending money in a similar or a different way. That can be another way to look at your budget and see what needs to shift.
If you know you are going to be outside at Octoberfest and hay rides and pumpkins and like maybe you didn’t think about that when you first made your budget or you aren’t budgeting because you’re not working with me, which you should be, and this is just something as I’m talking right now, you’re like, oh Keina, that sounds like a great idea to like think about. That’s another area in your budget where you might want to adjust your personal allowance or adjust for entertainment. I know I have a client who lives in Texas and I was saying, what happens in the fall? She’s like, oh, it’s so hot in Texas that in the fall like that is our summer. And so we’ve been talking a lot about how does her budget need to shift because she’s going to probably be outside listening to music a lot more and going to different types of events and concerts.
So we’ve been thinking about how we can actually make space for that in her budget. And lastly, I would say like as always, at this point in time of the year, it’s an appropriate time for you to reflect on what has been happening in the first eight months of 2024. And I want you to adjust whatever you want to adjust for the last four months of the year. Your budget is supposed to be something that is a working document. It shouldn’t be static. You want it to feel like something that reflects your lifestyle and so your life is ever changing and so your budget may be ever changing as well. And that might be one of the reasons that you don’t feel like budgeting has been something that would work for you is because it feels so static and your budget shouldn’t feel static. Like the bills might feel a little bit static, but in terms of how you want to spend money and how you want to experience life that can be ever changing.
And so those are the things that we want to incorporate. So those are the things that I want you to do to prepare for Q4 and looking into 2025. So thank you so much for tuning in and if you’re ready to take this work deeper, you can apply to work with me in my five month coaching partnership. You can go to my show notes and apply to work with me there, or you can go to Wealthovernow.com/appointment and you will see the option to book a call with me. So I look forward to chatting with you soon.
Outro: Thank you so much for listening to Money Files. If you’re ready to take the next step to reach your financial goals, head to www.wealthovernow.com/appointment and let’s get started.
