4 Things That Made Managing Money Harder in 2025 — and How To Avoid Them in 2026
Written by
David Nadelle
Edited by
Rebekah Evans
Commitment to Our Readers
GOBankingRates' editorial team is committed to bringing you unbiased reviews and information. We use data-driven methodologies to evaluate financial products and services - our reviews and ratings are not influenced by advertisers. You can read more about our editorial guidelines and our products and services review methodology.
20 Years
Helping You Live Richer
Reviewed
by Experts
Trusted by
Millions of Readers
As 2026 continues to unfold, many people are starting to look back at the goals they made last year and evaluate where they succeeded and where they failed. Financial goals are good, but it’s the process that really matters.
When it comes to financial targets, 2025 was as tough a year as any for trying to get ahead. Inflation, consumer prices and interest rates remained higher than promised by the current administration, job growth stalled and the dollar dropped against other currencies, making it difficult for any American to manage their money.
Effective money management is crucial to your financial well-being. However, many people continue to struggle with budgeting, cost tracking and establishing objectives. Here are things that made managing your finances more difficult in 2025 and what you can do to avoid money pitfalls this year.
Overspending
According to an Empower survey, 54% of Americans polled felt that the cost of living increased in 2025. Travel, general retail and restaurants were the most popular expenditure categories among Americans in 2025, with electronics, hobbies and pet care seeing the largest relative growth year on year.
How To Avoid Overspending in 2026
Moving forward, make sure your spending reflects your values, such as family, experiences and financial security. Hyper-targeted advertising, including “special offers” catered to your precise spending patterns, interests and current location is unavoidable, so don’t be tricked into thinking impulse buys are justified. If you’ve never implemented a budget to track your expenses, now would be a good time to do so — and stick to it.
Credit Card Debt
Credit card debt hit an all-time high in 2025, as Americans owed $1.21 trillion on their credit cards, according to an August report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. And as Equifax reported around the same time, despite default rates remaining basically unchanged, many customers continue to purchase despite rising prices and hefty borrowing fees.
How To Curb Your Credit Card Use in 2026
Many people make financial resolutions at the beginning of the year, showing that people are motivated to improve their balance sheets. Turning that desire for change into action is what you need to do in 2026, so get serious about tackling high-interest debt while you maintain minimum payments on everything else and curb credit card spending where you can.
Subscription Creep
According to Consumer Affairs, subscription creep got real and real expensive as 2025 dragged on. Many households paid 15% to 30% more per month for the subscriptions that they held. Consumers continued to pay companies for unwanted monthly or annual memberships even when they increased the price of existing services, often on short notice or without much disclosure.
How To Cut Subscriptions in 2026
Ever signed up for a subscription and forgotten to cancel it after the free trail expired? You’re not alone. Try not to think of proactively managing your subscriptions and getting rid of unnecessary ones as chores, but rather as chances to take control of your finances. Throwing away money you worked so hard to earn makes zero sense.
Lack of an Emergency Fund
Back in May 2025, the Pew Research Center posted the results of their latest American Trends Panel survey, which found that almost three out of 10 respondents (28%) believed their financial status would worsen a year from then. This was a huge increase from the 16% who said the same in May 2024.
When asked about specific challenges faced, 27% said they had trouble paying for medical care and 26% claimed they had to borrow money from family and friends. Disturbingly, more than half of Americans don’t have emergency or rainy day funds that would cover even three months of expenses in the case of sickness, job loss or an economic turndown.
How To Build an Emergency Fund in 2026
Finding “extra” money to tuck away in an emergency fund isn’t easy, but it’s an absolute necessity. Chances are you’re going to have to deal with an emergency or at some point in your lifetime and you don’t want to get into big-time debt or take out a high-cost loan if an unexpected situation should arise.
If you open a high-interest savings account, be realistic with what you can contribute and automate money transfers, your money will grow fast, before you even have the chance to spend it. And don’t worry about goals at first, just start saving.
Editor’s note on political coverage: GOBankingRates is nonpartisan and strives to cover all aspects of the economy objectively and present balanced reports on politically focused finance stories. You can find more coverage of this topic on GOBankingRates.com.
More From GOBankingRates
