Audit & adjust your spending to reach your 2025 savings goals
CardRates.com CFP® and personal finance expert Bobbi Rebell sits down with Wealth's Brad Smith for a conversation to share her strategies on acclimating to a new budget and unnecessary spending.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Wealth here.
All week long on wealth, we're conducting your mid-year financial checkup. If you're one of the Americans who wanted to save more or spend less in 2025, you set this at the outset of the year as one of your goals. Well, guess what? This is your opportunity for a progress report. I'm joined in studio by Bobby Ribell, who is the cardrates.com CFP and personal finance expert. Bobby, good to have you here in studio with us. So, let's talk about these mid-year check-ins. How can a mid-year check-in and audit, how can this help with some of your spending habits?
Okay. Well, the first thing you want to do is you want to look back at your history because we learn so much from history, we know. So you want to look at not your New Year's resolutions, Brad. You want to look at your New Year's expectations. And think about how you did relative to that. So look at how you did in terms of your income. What were you expecting? Did you expect to get a raise? Maybe you got it, maybe you didn't. Did you expect to earn money in overtime? How did your actual earning come in based on your expectations? And then you want to think about how your spending went. What were your expenses? Were they higher than expected? Did you have some surprises? And of course, think about where you are in terms of your debt. Did you make the kind of progress that you would hope to make? And finally, savings and investments. So, take a holistic point of view.
So once you take that in, what do you do with that information?
You need to analyze it. You need to actually take the time. I know we talk about being mindful with our money these days, and I talk about financial wellness a lot. But the truth is that really matters, taking the time to assess how you did. And the interesting thing is, there are some things we can control and some things we can't control. So think about what you could control in terms of your income, right? How much, how did you do? Did you take the time to ask for that raise? Did you offer to work the overtime? Did you really get going on that side hustle? How did that income come, and what did you have control of? And the same thing with the spending. Did you get pulled into spending things that you, spending on things that maybe you regret a little bit? But also, I think people should give themselves a little bit of a break. This year has been tough. There's a lot of things that hit us that were not in our control. So we need to give ourselves a little love and remember things like inflation, things costing more, we couldn't control that. Think about though what you could do differently.
That's why I needed to go to that Beyoncé concert. It just had to happen, even though it would have been overspending by normal years. But how do you adjust and pull back from overspending and course correct?
Yeah, so you want to really think about how you're spending. Think about why you're spending. So you had to go to the Beyoncé concert. You had to. And, and you know, we can talk about how you manage your summer spending, how you might think about your priorities, but really think through what you can do to take better control and spend more deliberately. So that might mean little, you know, tricks and tips. So write down your budget, put it somewhere where you can see it, but then take it a step further. I like to think about renewing your budget vows. So you put, maybe on your refrigerator, whatever it is, your spending plan, your budget, what you have, and then you get used to it. So you don't really see it anymore, take it down once a week, once every two weeks, put it in your calendar as a reminder, rewrite it, adjust it, constantly rework it, because life happens and it may not be realistic anymore. So constantly checking in with that.
Had to.
You also might want to do some little tip, little tips and tricks like putting when you're shopping online, put your stuff in your wish list, not your cart. It's one extra step. Remove that credit card from inside your, you know, that remember, when your computer remembers it, you know how that is. You want to remove that. Wait to make those peer, those purchases, and of course, unsubscribe to those retailers who love to remind you that every day is the best sale ever. Every day is your last chance to get that deal that you know you want to get. And I also say, shop your closet and your home. Not just clothing. We tend to buy things that we already have in our home just because we can't find it. It makes sense to get organized. And then, you know, we talked about the work in, that Walmart work in. It's not, it's not a bad thing to buy a dupe. Own it.
Right. Yeah.
Yeah.
That's facts. You've got a lot of good vendors or vendors on Canal Street who could sell you a dupe, for sure here.
Yeah, well those are forgeries. We're talking legit dupes. We're keeping it above board, legal, inspired by, inspired by. How do you leave room in your budget for those summer vacations and other fun activities?
Generalizing the two versus inspired by.
Like Beyoncé concerts, right?
Like Beyoncé concerts. Right. So you want to think about your priorities and really write them down, and think about where do you get the best bang for your buck. And it might be one giant splurge event like, you know, a Taylor Swift or Beyoncé concert, and that may be it. And then, you know, you can just say, you know what's the best value for the money in the summer? Being lazy. Just chill with your friends. It's okay to spend less and really make sure that you find a way to get the things that matter the most to you.
Absolutely. Like Beyoncé.
It's all about Beyoncé today.
Exactly. The, the, the she economy powered by Beyoncé. Thank you so much for joining us.
Thanks for having me.
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