What’s in Your Financial Playlist This Year? Harvard FCU’s 2025 Finances Wrapped

Get a deeper look into your 2025 spending with a personalized financial recap via Harvard FCU. Here’s how we’re breaking down your financial playlist for the year.

Your Top 3 Spending Categories

Where did your money go most often this year? Check online banking records to categorize your spending (and if you don’t yet have online banking, make it a priority to sign up). You might put spending into buckets like Retail, Groceries and Gas, or you might divide expenditures in terms of Wants, Needs and Savings.

Once you know your top three spending categories, take some time to evaluate how your money got divvied up over the course of the year. If you have a household budget, compare what you planned to spend with your final numbers for the year. Then decide: are you happy to make these your top three categories again next year, or does anything need to change?

Most Streamed Expense

We’ve all got that one expense that shows up every month…or every week…or even every day. It could be a cup of coffee, a media subscription, or even a recurring interest payment on lingering debt. If you’re happy with the spending behind your most streamed expense, that’s great! But if you’d rather switch up your financial playlist next year, then it’s time to make a change.

One of the best ways to cut down on impulse buys is to make a budget ahead of time. Check the Harvard FCU blog for budgeting tips to help you get started. Or, if subscriptions are eating up a good portion of your streaming bandwidth, try a full cull: quite every subscription service you have, then only rejoin if and when you notice the service is gone.

Surprise Track

It’s a good bet that at some point in the past year, you were caught off guard by an unexpected expense. From car troubles to home repair to sudden income loss, financial surprises are never fun to deal with. That’s why it’s so important to review what surprises happened last year and make some guesses about what might be coming in the year ahead.

Another important way to soften the blow of a financial surprise is to build an emergency savings account. Financial experts recommend keeping enough money to cover three to six months of expenses. Importantly, make sure your funds are in a high-interest savings account where they can earn interest but still be accessed immediately if the need should arise.

New Release

Did you start a brand new financial habit in the past year? It’s time to celebrate this important financial highlight! Maybe you downloaded a budgeting app, or met a savings goal, or made every single debt payment in full and on time. Whatever the victory, use your year-end financial wrap to recognize the success and stay empowered to make ever more progress in the year to come.

And, if you’re in the market for a new goal to meet in the coming year, consider opening an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) so you can save for the future in a tax-advantaged way. Maxing out a workplace pension or 401(k) account, especially if your employer offers fund matching, is another great goal to set for the next twelve months.