Staying on top of your finances means having a plan throughout the whole year. It’s not just making a budget and balancing your checkbook. There are a lot of things that should be done to keep control of your personal finances, and how granular the list can get depends on the individual making the list. However, there are some things that everyone should be doing on a month-by-month basis.
Let’s look at the first quarter of the year.
January
In January, you should take time to think ahead and write down any major financial events you foresee happening in the next five years. Any kids or grandkids heading to college or starting a business? Will you need a new car? Will your house need anything major like a new roof or new HVAC system? All of these can be major expenses, but at least if you are working you can rely on work income to rebuild your savings. Retirees can often be blindsided by major repairs with long-lasting impacts to their savings. Planning ahead, anticipating, and saving major repairs later by undertaking preventative maintenance steps today are all ways to alleviate some of the shock.
If you’re still working, take some time in January to calculate out what your tax bill should be and how much you’re withholding. Best to avoid an April surprise as best you can. Also, while you’re doing calculations off your pay stub, take a look at your retirement contributions and employer match. You want to make sure you’re contributing enough to get the match, but not contributing so much early on that you exceed the contribution limit later in the year and miss out on weeks and months of company matching.
February
In February, it’s time to take that list you made in January and narrow down. You know your big expenses for five years, what are your big expenses going to be this year? If you kept your big list in January pretty loose, you may struggle to plot out this year as well. Try to at least highlight, and prepare for, the largest three purchases of the year.
February is also a great time to do a “spending audit.” Chart out what you spend each month and what you’re spending it on. Look at things like streaming services. Are there any you’re not using any longer? With “Stranger Things” done, do you need Netflix anymore? Along with consumer spending, take a good look at the coverages you’re paying for with insurances. Are you carrying a term policy that you no longer need? Are you contributing money into your FSA that you lose every year?
February is a great month for analysis.
March
March is time to get ready for taxes. You should have all your tax forms by now and, if you don’t, you have plenty of time to get them. Proper planning prevents poor performance, so getting all your paperwork ready now can avoid running into deadlines if you wait until the last minute and realize you don’t have a document. Also, staying on the topic of taxes, use this time to get familiar with any tax changes that are coming into effect. In 2026, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in 2025 made significant changes to deductions and the tax code. It is worth making sure you’re up to speed on all of the changes.
March is also a great time to check for credit issues and identity theft. The FTC put together a guide on getting your credit reports for free directly from the credit agencies—not from a commercial website with a catchy jingle (and monthly fee). You can read that guide here. And you can visit annualcreditreport.com to get your free reports from the agencies directly.