Year End Edition! In mid-November!
Hi Friendos,
I looked at my calendar for the next several weeks and realized that between gearing up for next year’s tax season and some upcoming travel, this newsletter needs to start its year-end break a little on the early side. So today I bring you thoughts for year-end financial planning, holding the line on holiday gift spending, and how you can simultaneously get your 2025 taxes done, support a beautiful neighborhood food coop, and work with me!
Year-end financial planning
This is not an exhaustive checklist, but rather a few ideas to get you thinking about what your personal checklist should include:
- Check in with your savings goals for the year and see if you are on track. If you have a W-2 job, you have a few paychecks remaining to work with. If you are self-employed, you still have time to make those goals.
- Pencil out a savings plan for 2026. The IRS just published max contributions for retirement accounts.
- Consider tax gain harvesting and tax optimization with charitable contributions.
- Don’t forget to take any required minimum distributions from your retirement accounts!
Hold the line on gift spending
For holiday gifts, be strong and stick to your budget! There are a LOT of clever marketers who are working very hard to separate you from your dollars, and very few people who are rooting for you to hold the line. I stand with you! People who love you will love you just as much if you stay within your budget, whatever that may be.
I think a wonderful gift can be something that is not very expensive in absolute terms, but is a nicer and perhaps pricier version of that item. Here are a few things I personally love that might make a nice gift, on their own or in combination with other items:
- Casper Candles – 100% organic beeswax candles that smell like beeswax, which has a wonderful scent.
- Zkano socks – made by a family business in Alabama using organic, American-grown cotton.
- Rancho Gordo heirloom dried beans – their gift boxes include recipes!
- Proraso shaving cream, on its own or as part of a gift set, or perhaps paired with an old-fashioned Merkur safety razor (my personal choice) and a sampler pack of blades to try out. This is a frugal win if it helps the recipient avoid paying for pricey blades from the likes of Gillette.
- Zero Japan’s Bee House butter dish, that comes with its own butter knife.
Triple threat: line up your 2025 taxes, support a local food coop, and work with me. Make it a quadruple threat if you gift it to someone else ❤️🎁
That’s right, you can do all those things at the same time if you purchase my services via the Windsor Terrace Food Coop’s online auction! I donated services for traditional tax prep, learning to do your own taxes (with my guidance), and financial coaching. The auction is live through Sunday, November 23rd. It’s a proxy-style auction so you enter your initial and maximum bids. If someone else is bidding on the same item, the site will automatically raise your bid by the increment listed for each item, but will not exceed your maximum bid. Bid early and often!
Have a wonderful holiday season! Frequently Taxed Questions is open for business in November and December, I will hold my free Tax Me Anything session on Saturday, December 13th, but the Boring Newsletter is on break until January. Talk to you then,
-Stephanie
Frequently Taxed Questions 