4 Common Money Traps That Could Keep Your Bills High in 2026
Written by
Jake Safane
Edited by
Jenna Klaverweiden
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While 2026 may seem far away, waiting until New Year’s to set new money resolutions isn’t always the best idea. The last few months of the year tend to fly by, with back-to-school season, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas making these remaining weeks feel like a sprint.
By the time the calendar turns to 2026, you might already have some ingrained habits that you can’t easily turn around right away, so it’s useful to start planning ahead.
With that in mind, here are some of the top money traps to proactively avoid that could keep your bills high in 2026.
Also see how to make your paycheck go further when bills keep going up.
Overlooking Tax Law Changes
The recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) includes many tax changes, as well as policy changes, that could affect your wallet over the next several years. Some of the provisions apply to 2025, but a lot begin in 2026. While you might not consider yourself someone who gets caught up in politics, overlooking the details of this tax law could be a mistake.
“The One Big Beautiful Bill includes a lot of tax changes which are likely to affect the wallets of many taxpayers. While some of these may be beneficial — such as an increased child tax credit or no taxes on overtime/tips, to a point — others are likely to negatively impact many Americans,” said Meg K. Wheeler, CPA, founder of the Equitable Money Project.
In particular, Wheeler suggested reviewing your tax withholdings, as the law could affect your take-home pay, and you ideally don’t want to over- or under-withhold.
“In general, when you have significant tax law changes, as you do with the OBBA, you should always check your withholdings. Even if the changes are in your benefit, frequent changes make it hard to choose a ‘set it and forget it’ practice, and could lead to big swings each year, which most Americans can’t afford,” Wheeler said.
Ignoring Student Loans
Related to the OBBBA, along with some other federal policy changes, is the idea that ignoring what’s happening to federal student loan requirements could cost you a lot of money in 2026, if not sooner.
“Changes under the OBBBA will likely impact their ability to continue to defer payments and interest on those loans, meaning that not only will they need to start making monthly payments, but even if they don’t, the balance of those loans is going to increase due to returning interest — and fast,” Wheeler said.
Letting Subscriptions Sneak Up
A common money tip — but one that’s worth revisiting — is to review your subscriptions so that you don’t continue to pay for services you no longer want. Pay particular attention to ones you might have paid for annually, which can be easy to overlook. That way, you’re ready to cancel them before they renew in 2026.
“While these small charges may seem harmless, they can add up over time. Everything from our streaming services to our meal kits has gone up in price, and oftentimes, we end up paying for things we don’t need,” Wheeler explained.
That’s not to say you have to cut all your subscriptions. But think carefully about what you actually want and value.
“Be ruthless about where your money is going,” Wheeler said. Reviewing your subscriptions isn’t simply about trimming expenses, “but instead about ensuring that your hard-earned and limited resources are going towards things that really matter to you.”
Using Financing You Can’t Afford
Lastly, be careful about using financing like buy now, pay later (BNPL) services. Maybe you have some payments to complete for 2025, but getting in the habit of being more mindful with BNPL can help you avoid unnecessary bills in 2026.
“We end up buying things we can’t really afford and justify by deferring the payments over time,” Wheeler said.
In other words, if you can’t afford it now, that often means you can’t really afford it with BNPL, because those payments should arguably be going toward savings and investments instead.
Aside from BNPL, other forms of financing could also set you back in 2026, so think carefully before taking on any debt. Not only do you not necessarily want to add debt payments to your bills in 2026 in general, but you also have to think ahead about how costs continue to rise, which could make your ability to afford debt payments next year difficult.
“Don’t hide your head in the sand when it comes to your money,” Wheeler explained. “While some interest rates have started to come down slightly, they’re still higher than in years past, and inflation is still higher than the Fed’s target rate of 2%. This means that basic necessities are still likely to cost more than you realize and your dollar won’t go as far.”
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.
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