We're obviously already in a new year now. Before we get any deeper into 2026, however, it might be wise for retirees to do some of the things they either just didn't have time to deal with during the busy holiday season, or tackle some of the things they simply couldn't complete in calendar 2025.
Here are the four biggies you might want to make a point of handling before the end of this month, since missing that mental deadline risks making it much too easy to further postpone this work.
1. Determine your RMD
If you're going to be 73 years old or older at any point in 2026, you're required to make a withdrawal from any savings in a retirement account that isn't a Roth IRA. How much? That depends on your age and how much retirement savings you have. Your broker or retirement account's custodian should provide you with your year-end account balances needed to determine this required minimum distribution, while the IRS offers you a worksheet to walk you through the math.
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You don't necessarily need to take your RMD in January. The advantage of figuring out the amount now is just that you'll have nearly a full year to figure out the optimal way of satisfying the IRS's required minimum distribution requirements.
2. Make sure your budget is actually your budget
There's never a bad time to make sure the amount of money flowing out isn't exceeding the amount of money you have coming in (and then making any needed adjustments). You now have one recent full year's worth of history to consider, which means any spending fluctuations stemming from higher electricity bills in the summertime or more travel expenses later in the year can now be fully reflected in your average spending that ultimately determines your monthly budget.
3. Assess your portfolio's allocation
There's a pretty good chance you've been putting off some sales of certain investments in 2025 just to postpone taxes on any capital gains, which is smart -- even if you can't sidestep taxes, delaying them means you have another year to do something constructive with the portion of your money that will eventually belong to the IRS.
If your portfolio's allocation is really out of whack now (maybe big gains from AI-related technology stocks means you now have far too much exposure to the industry), waiting another year to make the adjustment may simply be too risky. Go ahead and mitigate the risk now, so the allocation disparity doesn't become even worse.
4. Review your will (and its beneficiaries)
Finally, while there's also never a bad time to review your will and its beneficiaries, this is another one of those tasks that's easy to put off over and over again, ultimately at the risk of your intended heirs. With winter weather likely to have much of the country snowed in through the end of the month -- and with little else going on around this time of year anyway -- why not use this time you're apt to be at home to dig out some of your estate-planning paperwork and make sure it actually says what you want it to say?
