5 financial tips to start 2025 on the right foot

What are you taking from 2024 into 2025? This question can make a difference between repeating old habits or building a year full of personal and financial achievements.

You’re done with Christmas shopping and dealt with the surprise expenses that always come up during the season. Now it’s time to look at your finances and make decisions that put you in control of your financial journey.

Here are 5 simple tips that will help you calibrate your budget and think about goals for the upcoming year.

The point of having financial goals is to achieve what you want. If you want to take a trip to Asia or buy a house, your budget should reflect that. However, this doesn’t mean completely ditching your indulgences. The key is to establish a balance.

For example, only keep the streaming subscriptions you need. If you’re done watching a series and aren’t interested in another one, pause the subscription until something worth watching comes along.

Pro Tip: Define what you want, visualize how much you’ll enjoy reaching these goals, and give yourself a round of applause every month as you watch your savings bucket grow.

Both heroes and villains must plan if they want to get exactly what they want. Likewise, the plan –or the budget in this case– needs to be flexible. Use the available tools to help adjust your plan to your needs. 

Pro Tip: Get started with our guide to distribute your salary and reach your financial goals.

The key to saving is consistency, and you can only be consistent if the goal is achievable. Try the 52-week challenge¹ where you increase your savings each week. If you save $1 the first week, $2 the second, and so on, you can accumulate more than $1,300 a year.

Pro Tip: No matter your savings plan, remember the U-Save² account lets you define your savings goal and the frequency of automatic transfers to your savings account. See how it’s done!

If you use credit cards, make them work for you. Earn points you can exchange for travel, cash or gift cards. Now, remember to use them responsibly. Depending on how you manage your cards, they can be a great tool or an obstacle. As for improving your credit, review these 5 tips and put them into practice daily to strengthen your credit.

Pro Tip: Whenever possible, generate rewards by using your card(s) for recurring purchases and pay your balance in full every month to avoid interests. But if you can’t, remember to always pay more than the minimum required. 

Saving is not only for cool things. We must also prepare for surprise expenses like car repairs. A healthy balance includes both saving for your goals and a robust emergency fund.

Want to visualize your expenses to understand how much you should save for unexpected matters? Use our Interactive Budget Sheet.

Make sure your financial goals reflect who you are and what you value. Start today with small steps, and when you close the year, you’ll feel proud of everything you’ve accomplished. Repeat the learning cycle by asking yourself:

• Which strategies worked best?

• What obstacles did I encounter? How can I overcome them next year?

• Which goals have changed? What other goals do I want to achieve?

Learning and reviewing is an ongoing task. The good thing is that the more we learn, the more possibilities there are and the more goals we achieve.

Have a happy and prosperous new year!