Budgeting Tips for 2025 – EP 471

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As the year draws to a close, a new year brings fresh hope and exciting goals. One of the big ones is planning your 2025 spending. No matter your season in life, preparing ahead is always a smart move. In this episode, Jen and Jill share essential tips on how to budget for the year ahead.

Progress is better than perfection.

Sponsors:

  •  525,600 minutes. For many, that’s how we measure a year. And for so many of us, at least 20,000 of those are spent thinking about what we’re going to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We would love to help you cut down on those minutes by giving you a free live meal planning class for 2025. This class is free exclusively for people who pre-order our Buy What You Love Without Going Broke which is coming out on Jan. 7th. So pre-order our book now!! 

The Starting Line

Discover how to manage your budget in 2025 with this article by Truist Bank and prepare to meet your short- and long-term financial goals with ease.

What Jen + Jill have to say:

Jen’s hot take to kick off your new year is to start with your spending instead of your budgeting. She recommends using a 90-day spending inventory to get a clear picture of your current habits.

For a modern way to manage your finances you can use tools like Monarch or classic spreadsheets. Meanwhile, Jill suggests creating a spending plan rooted in your priorities—just don’t forget to leave room for some fun along the way.

Where to Put Our Priorities

When it comes to prioritization, Jen emphasizes tackling debt first—especially high-interest debt or anything impacting your credit score. After all, the less we’re paying toward debt, the more we can put toward what truly matters. They recommend Smart Credit to optimize your credit store.

Jill suggests prioritizing retirement savings, which should ideally already be on autopilot. Even if it’s just a small amount, a small progress is still progress. So being able to put just a small amount will still be helpful.

Practical Financial Adjustments

While many believe the best approach to budgeting is finding ways to increase your income, Jen suggests shifting your perspective to changing your income. By this, she means considering your work-life balance to avoid pushing yourself too hard in the pursuit of earning more.

Jill recommends reevaluating your biggest expenses, like housing and transportation, to identify potential shifts that can maximize your budget. These changes don’t have to be big or immediate—just enough to create meaningful, long-term improvements for the future.

What are your 2025 $ goals?

For Jen, she wants to  invest in the community or local businesses more in addition to the stock market. And for Jill, it’s to simply just to make more money. 

Bill of The Week

Thank you Meri for your insanely creative BOTW!!

Thanks so Much for Listening!

Thanks so much for listening. We love love love reading your kind reviews and we especially loved this one from:

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Besties for the resties.

I love listening to Jen, and Jill. Been listening to them since 2018ish time frame when I was going through financial shifts in my life with my family. Jen and Jill have really helped in giving me ideas what I can change, and improve on with my financial life goals that are now life long habits. Thank you ladies.

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