Being retired means you need to be very careful with your finances. Even if you have a nice amount of savings, if you're no longer earning a paycheck, you'll need to make sure you're making the most of whatever income you have access to. With that in mind, here are three crucial financial moves you should put on your to-do list before 2025 comes to a close.
1. Take your RMD if you have to
If you have your retirement savings in a Roth IRA or 401(k), then you don't have to worry about taking required minimum distributions (RMDs). But if you have a traditional retirement plan, you need to make sure you're following the RMD rules that apply to you.
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If you were born prior to 1960, you have to start taking RMDs at 73. You're allowed to delay your first RMD until April 1 of the year after you turn 73. But that will leave you with two RMDs in a single year.
Whether it's your first RMD or your seventh, you don't want to risk the costly penalties that come with failing to take that money out of your IRA or 401(k) on time. So if you haven't started the withdrawal process, get moving now -- before 2025 runs out of days.
Remember, too, that if you don't need the money from your RMD, there are strategies that could potentially minimize your associated tax bill.
Making qualified charitable distributions, for example, gets out you of paying taxes on RMDs by having you send money to a registered organization directly out of your retirement plan. But don't wait until the very last minute to implement this type of strategy in case you hit a snag and need time to figure it out
2. Review (and rebalance) your portfolio
At this stage of life, you're probably relying on your investment portfolio for regular income. So it's important to make sure your assets are producing a nice amount of income for you while not exposing you to undue risk.
Take a look at your portfolio and see if any your assets have gained a lot of value. If so, that's a good thing in theory, except it may leave you overexposed to a single stock whose value might crater in the new year.
In general, it's a good idea to unload assets you're heavily invested in. That doesn't mean you have to dump them completely. But if a single stock now comprises 15% of your portfolio, that could be a dangerous thing in retirement. You may want to sell enough shares so it represents a much smaller percentage of your assets overall.
3. Create a 2026 budget
A number of your costs may be rising in the new year. Medicare Part B premiums, for example, are going up, and you may be looking at higher expenses based on your specific Medicare plan.
Now's a good time to set up a budget for 2026 that reflects not only your costs, but your expected income. If you're rebalancing your portfolio, for example, you may decide to invest in a new dividend ETF that pays monthly, which could change your income picture.
There's also Social Security to think about. Benefits are getting a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment in the new year.
If you have a larger monthly check to start out with, that raise could end up being pretty significant. If you don't get a very large monthly benefit, that raise may not be worth too much, especially after subtracting your increased Part B premiums.
But either way, it's important to go into the new year having a good sense of where you stand financially. That way, you can make adjustments from the start.
It's important to go into a new calendar year feeling confident in your finances. Make these key moves before 2025 concludes so you can start off 2026 in a great place.
