Reflecting on your year as it comes to a close is an important and time-honored activity. When you’re reminiscing and re-evaluating, don’t forget to think about your money, too! Considering how this year went for you financially is an important part of the process. Here’s the why and how of it:

Why Reflect?

Reflecting on your financial journey throughout 2021 can yield several important results. First, it can give you a chance to simply notice what’s changed, and how. The last two years have been economically tumultuous for most of us. Consider where your finances were at in the beginning of the year, as opposed to where they are now.

Aside from noting change over time, this can also be a chance for you to learn from your past money moves. Perhaps this year you tried some new strategies or made a big purchase. Reflecting on how different events in your financial life this past year have worked out can give you insights into what to do next, and what you’d rather not do again.

Finally, I personally believe that just giving your money the gift of your attention is a positive thing by itself. Simply making it a habit to check in with your money and what it’s doing right now can be enough to start you off.

Prompts for Reflection

To spur your reflective time, I have a couple different questions you can try asking yourself. These prompts are about your values and your goals, rather than the nitty-gritty details. If you’re more interested in that, scroll down to the review section. You might like to try answering these questions either as journal prompts, or use them as discussion questions with a money buddy:

• How has my financial situation changed over the course of this year? Where am I now compared to December 2020?
• Do I feel fulfilled by how I used my money this year? Why/why not?
• How do I feel about they way I showed up with my money this year?
• What are my financial lessons this year? What did I do with my money that worked so well, I’m going to do it again next year? What would I like to improve on?

Do a Review

If you want a reflective process that gets further into the numbers and details, I have two recommendations for you. First, of course, I highly recommend doing a year-end review with a bookkeeper if it’s your business finances you’re reflecting on. Second, I encourage you to check out my article on doing a business check-in. You can adapt this process to fit to your personal finances too, if you’d prefer that.

If you enjoyed doing this reflective process, you’d probably like my free e-Book, 9 Secrets to Financial Self Care, which contains a lot of ideas for up-leveling your financial life in ways that are simple and sustainable. Download your copy here.

Angela