4 Ways To Reset Your Finances Before the End of the Year, According To Rachel Cruze

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We’re in the final quarter of 2024, but it’s not too late to end the year on a financial high note.

“We still have a couple more months to the end of the year,” said money expert Rachel Cruze in a recent YouTube video, noting that it’s not too late for a money reset, “whether you feel like you have made excellent money decisions this year, maybe you’re making some tweaks or maybe you’re thinking, ‘I’ll just wait till January.'”

Here are Cruze’s tips for resetting your finances before the end of the year.

Keep a Calendar — and Say ‘No’ to Events That Are Out of Budget

The end of the year tends to be a busy time socially, and it can become hard to keep track of all the varying events — and their costs — if you don’t keep a calendar.

“The first reset is your calendar, so whether you are a physical planner, you actually have a real-life calendar or maybe you’re doing it on your phone or maybe it’s on the go or maybe it’s just all chaotic, it is a good idea to look ahead on your family’s calendar,” Cruze said in the video.

“October, November, December, they become busy, and I just want to remind you that you do not have to participate in every single thing that is going to come up.”

Cruze said to not feel obligated to attend every single event, especially if they will throw off your personal budget.

“There’s a great quote that I love and it says it’s better to feel guilt than resentment, so if you’ve got to say no to that candle swap that’s out there in November and it’s causing you anxiety, just say no,” Cruze said. “It’s OK. Show up for your people, but also know you have to put your oxygen mask on first before you take care of others.”

Being overbooked can cause stress both mentally and financially.

“You need to have a place in your life where you have margin and that everything is not so overbooked, because it can be so easily this time of year,” Cruze said. “One of my favorite ways to keep my schedule and my sanity together is to actually have a calendar.”

Do a Closet Cleanout

Cleaning out your closet will not only help to declutter your space, but it can also help you find things to sell for extra holiday cash.

“The second reset that I love to do is a good closet cleanout,” Cruze said. “This morning I was in my closet. I was like, ‘I have nothing to wear.’ I sounded like a teenager. And my husband was like, ‘You have a closet full of clothes.’ I was like, ‘I don’t like any of this stuff.'”

Cruze’s story is an all-too-common one.

“The truth is we … just end up buying clothes and you wear them once or twice, and then you’re kind of like, ‘eh,'” Cruze said. “You don’t like it anymore but it hangs in your closet for years and years and years.”

To help you find clothes you can get rid of, Cruze recommends a “hanger hack.”

“You take all of your hangers and you flip them around, so you turn the little hook thing to the back, so all the hangers are facing one way,” she explained. “Then, when you actually wear an item and take it off the hanger, when you hang it back up, turn it the other way. At the end of the season, you can look through all your hangers and see which clothes … you did not wear.”

Once you’ve identified the clothes you no longer want or need, you can either donate them or sell them.

“I have a friend who takes some of those clothes that she doesn’t wear and she sells them,” Cruze said. “She makes a couple of hundred bucks every time she does this. And this is not like designer clothes — this is like Madewell, Old Navy.”

Declutter Other Spaces Around Your Home

In addition to cleaning out your closet, Cruze recommends cleaning out and decluttering your car, pantry, garage and junk drawer. Your garage, in particular, can be a treasure trove for things to resell for extra cash

“When you clear out these spaces, it just gives you some breathing room,” Cruze said. “Your garage, look through it, throw some stuff out, give stuff away, donate it. Throw it out if it’s junk … [or] you can sell stuff.”

Create a Budget

If you never created a budget at the beginning of the year, it’s not too late to do so. Or, if you created a budget in January, now is a good time to revisit it to make sure it’s still working for you.

“The most crucial [reset] in my opinion is a budget — getting organized with your money,” Cruze said. “As we are coming up to possibly one of the more expensive parts of the year — we’re talking Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and holidays — you want to be sure that you have a plan for where your income is going.

“You could be overspending and not even realizing it,” she continued. “So look at your expenses and just say, ‘Hey, let’s make a plan for where our income is going.'”

The first step in creating a budget is to determine how much you are spending on essential expenses.

“You always want to start with food, shelter, utilities, transportation, and then everything else underneath,” Cruze said.

There are many free budgeting tools and spreadsheets that make it easy to create a budget that works for you.

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