Women's Money Wisdom

Episode 291: 7 Smart Money Moves to Make This Fall

• Melissa Joy, CFP® • Season 4 • Episode 291

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Fall isn’t just for cider mills, football games, and cozy sweaters—it’s also the perfect season to reset your financial life. In this solo episode, Melissa Joy shares seven practical tips to help you take advantage of seasonal opportunities and set yourself up for success before the year ends. 

From open enrollment decisions and maximizing workplace benefits to planning for holiday spending, reviewing your investments, and checking in on your estate plan—Melissa walks through the steps that can help you move forward with clarity and confidence. 

You’ll learn how to: 

  • Make the most of your employer benefits and avoid last-minute enrollment stress 
  • Use remaining 2025 benefits wisely, from FSA dollars to legal perks 
  • Take proactive steps on taxes before December 31 
  • Plan and budget for the holidays to avoid year-end financial regret 
  • Rebalance your portfolio and revisit investment opportunities 
  • Update beneficiaries, life insurance, and estate planning documents 
  • Conduct a fall financial health check and set goals for the new year 

As Melissa reminds us, progress is always more important than perfection. Pick one or two of these seasonal money tasks, get them done, and set the tone for a stronger financial future. 

The previous presentation by PEARL PLANNING was intended for general information purposes only. No portion of the presentation serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from PEARL PLANNING or any other investment professional of your choosing. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and it should not be assumed that future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy, or any non-investment related or planning services, discussion or content, will be profitable, be suitable for your portfolio or individual situation, or prove successful. Neither PEARL PLANNING’s investment adviser registration status, nor any amount of prior experience or success, should be construed that a certain level of results or satisfaction will be achieved if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. PEARL PLANNING is neither a law firm nor accounting firm, and no portion of its services should be construed as legal or accounting advice. No portion of the video content should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. A copy of PEARL PLANNING’s current written disclosure Brochure discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request or at https:...

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. I'm Melissa Joy, a certified financial planner and the founder of Pearl Planning. My goal is to help you streamline and organize your finances, navigate big money decisions with confidence and be strategic in order to grow your wealth. As a woman, you work hard for your money and I'm here to help you make the most of it. Now let's get into the show.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. I am going to have a solo episode today and we're talking seasonal what to do when it comes to money for fall. So this is seven tips on what you should be getting done right now when it comes to your money, and it's all about this time of year and this year, so recording this in 2025. I think it is so helpful to think about money when it comes to seasons. We're kind of wired to be seasonal. We're used to this calendar and we have our annual traditions. I live in Michigan, so you know things we look forward to in the and we have our annual traditions. I live in michigan, so you know things we look forward to in the fall are the leaves changing, visiting cider mills, fall football, college and high school all that good stuff and, if you can kind of thematically tackle some things when it comes to your money based on the seasons. We we found both a lot of traction with these types of episodes we had a spring clean your finances about six months ago but also it just feels right for people and it's an easy way to get things done. So, without further ado, let's dive into it.

Speaker 1:

Number one for what you should be considering getting things done is a lot of you have an open enrollment season that often tends to come in the fall, so if you work for an employer, then you may need to refresh and update your benefits. There may be changes to your benefit options. I know that one of the biggest decisions that people make if they have a choice is about health insurance and, just FYI, health insurance rates are skyrocketing for employers and individuals alike. So be prepared that employers may make decisions to offer different choices and you may have reasons to change the choices that you tend to make if you do have choices. Some things to consider with this would be if you have a high deductible plan, you can often participate in a health savings account, and for those accounts they can be a great retirement savings vehicle that not only could be used for short-term funds, but if you are someone who has extra cash on hand, is really growing their wealth, this can be a great tool to fund your future retirement FSA accounts. Flexible spending accounts can both be for current year and just a little bit after. Needs for health care, as well as for your child care, can often be cafeteria plans.

Speaker 1:

So if you are going to have open enrollment this year, I'd like you to do a few things. I'd like you to look at any information that you receive from your employer about what's changing. Give yourself time to consider it. Schedule a time to discuss and coordinate benefits Well, make your own decisions and or, if you are with a spouse, work together to make those benefit decisions and remember that deadlines can sneak up on you. So, scheduling that time I can't tell you how many times because we carry our health insurance under my husband's work, because I'm self-employed, you know it's like hey, the deadline's midnight, we need to decide tonight, and that often is not convenient. So do give yourself some space and time. If it makes sense, discuss your choices with your financial planner and while oftentimes you can make changes to your retirement plan throughout the year, I would also encourage you to consider nudging up retirement savings, reviewing retirement decisions For highly compensated executives. Oftentimes there's an option for deferred compensation that comes up at this time of year too, and so, again, that's something else that you may want to consider where or how you're going to do that, and certainly that is an additional level of complexity and a reason to seek some advice. A second thing well, I'll just also mention that, while you may not be working, if you use the exchange for health care, be anticipating that you'll have an open enrollment period coming up toward the end of the year and also schedule that, or reach out if you work with a consultant. Just so you know, if you work with a healthcare consultant, they do not get compensated more than if you went directly on the exchange. So sometimes an insurance agent may be helpful in navigating what the right choices are. And again, um, unfortunately I think in many cases the rates are going much higher, much higher rates increases than with inflation.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, number two, I would say use the benefits you have for this year, and I know that could easily be wrapped up into number one, but I'm going to make it separate because it's so important. Some examples you may have signed up for a legal benefit and you may be sitting here listening to this episode and not have estate planning documents. So many employers offer a legal benefit plan so that if you need kind of low maintenance, low cost legal things like setting up an LLC or very basic advice during divorce or estate planning, you have a fixed cost. You pay your employer for the benefit and then you can get legal documents from an actual attorney, not a robot, through this benefit. But so many times I find clients that have that benefit but don't have their estate planning docs, which all of us need. In fact, one of the things I'm going to talk about down the line is to review your estate planning documents. So make sure you're using your benefits. Same goes for turning in your receipts if you had daycare reimbursements or making plans to spend money if you have an FSA that you need to spend close to the end of the year.

Speaker 1:

Now, if you're someone who has a health savings account and you're not using all of the benefits now, either because you've intentionally decided that these are long-term funds it's a great way to fund early retirement plans or you just don't consume as much health care costs as you're putting away, then make sure that those extra funds, if you want to, are being invested, which takes an extra step it's not just an automatic thing that the HSA typically does. So that's another reminder is to just kind of make a game plan for the remainder of the year. One other thing for the remainder of the year is that your income may have gone up so high that you don't have as much taken out for your Social Security and Medicare, or you may just have some money piled up in cash and if you haven't tapped out in terms of how much money you set aside in your retirement plan, this might be the perfect time to bump up your retirement savings until the end of the year. That will help you on your taxes when you file next year in many cases, as long as you're not choosing Roth, and it also, of course, helps you to save a little more for retirement. But you don't get the option with most company 401k plans to just write a check to the plan. So you kind of need to use this extra time to maximize to whatever your game plan is and get the money really saved. So all of those are like kind of maximizing your current opportunities for the remainder of the year.

Speaker 1:

Number three I find I'm talking more and more about tax when it comes to how I assist people with financial planning, and you don't typically get to do tax moves unless it's an employer contribution to a retirement plan in the following year when you're filing your taxes. So anything that you need to do for this tax year often needs to be done by 1231. First of all, we have, you know, kind of shifting taxes from this year. So many of the things in the new tax law apply to this year, so you may need to get a sense of where you're at with your withholdings. Also, so many people have variable income, whether it's because of employee stock options, if you're self-employed, or just maybe there's gaps employment. Anecdotally, I have more clients that have been laid off this year that may not be having their full year of income. And there's both opportunities if you have a sky high year where maybe you need to put more into that retirement plan or plan, if you have the possibilities to defer or reduce taxes in ways, and also you may have a lower tax year than usual where you might have the opportunity to do things like Roth conversions, or if you're in an early retiree before you've claimed Social Security or in your required minimum distribution phases. You may be paying yourself more out of your retirement accounts than your taxable accounts.

Speaker 1:

I'm getting into the weeds, but what I'm trying to encourage people to do is assess your tax situation, perhaps in conjunction with your tax preparer, cpa enrolled agent and or your financial planner someone like me so that you don't miss out on an opportunity that may have made sense for you. So do be thinking about the remainder of the year when it comes to taxes. Now let's talk about, on number four, some things that, if you're like me, tend to sneak up on. You. Plan your budget for year end holiday spending, travel, things like that and I would just add to that, as a busy business owner, working mom, I tend to be the one that cares more, and maybe I just need to care less about you know kind of the plans for the holidays, what's under the tree, we celebrate Christmas, or you know what Santa's planning to bring. I am trying to emphasize more experiences over stuff, just knowing that the house is quite full, but it really helps to plan early If you're someone who the budget tends to get away from you or things are really tight toward the end of the year, starting earlier or having a more intentional plan than you've had in the past can really be an aid. Also, just assessing like, hey, here's what we did last year and here's how it felt after you know there may have been things that you really were glad you spent money on and things that you know really didn't pass the sniff test when it came to being worth the time, effort and or money. But planning ahead, mapping out your calendar, not committing to too much it sounds wild to be talking about this in the fall, but that end of year time just tends to go so fast nowadays. Maybe it's just the age that I'm in that planning ahead gives me more space and time for pleasure and joy in a season that I really love. In a few months, number five is just all like me being a money nerd.

Speaker 1:

Check on your investments and rebalance. So this is a year. I'm recording this in September and, as of this point in time, many types of investments have gone higher in aggregate over the year. Investing indexes for both the US and international are higher from the start of the year. Bond investments are higher from the start of the year. Bond investments are higher from the start of the year. Cash investments are higher from the start of the year, although interest rates have ticked slightly down. And so look at your investments, because you might be surprised, since stocks have gone up so much higher over the last three years, consecutively through year to date, in terms of your percent stocks versus your percent bonds and for many financial planners we consider this a way to measure risk, and you may have a much riskier portfolio than you started with or intended to have because of for good reasons, and so it may be a good time to adjust your portfolio based on needs.

Speaker 1:

I've also noticed people have been really excited and comfortable to get a great yield relative to recent history in terms of their cash, and so they said, hey, bird in the hand, I'd rather get my 5% on money markets, but that 5% has trended down to around 4% and may go lower if interest rates march lower over time, and so you may have hoarded some cash that might be ready to invest, either for what I discussed earlier, in boosting your retirement accounts, and or it may be the right time to consider making investments in brokerage accounts. Certainly, I mean, college is so expensive nowadays, looking if you haven't started saving for 529s but plan to pay for college for your kids. That's another great place to put away some money. But reviewing your investments, seeing where you need to put money, where you need to shuffle money, is a great thing to do this time of year. It's a great thing to do always, but if you have a reminder to do it once a year, this is a good time, especially because of the way investments have behaved recently.

Speaker 1:

Number six I've just had a summer where there have been so many reminders of how important it is to pay attention to your beneficiary designations. Make sure you have the right estate planning documents updated. Fortunately, we have a relatively young client population and we don't have to deal with frequent deaths of clients, but when we do, we're constantly reminded on how much you need to pay attention when things go bump in the night, and so use this as a reminder to if you you know you have somebody you're not talking to who is in charge of your estate plan, or you're recently divorced and your beneficiary designations have not been updated, or you've got a young adult child who now needs beneficiary designations or I mean now needs both beneficiary designations in some cases but also financial and medical powers of attorney. All of these are really important things that can often be overlooked. I would also remind people to review your life insurance. In some cases you may be overinsured, but in many cases, because of life, lifestyle, the needs of your family, your children, your partner, you might be underinsured when it comes to life insurance. So reviewing those areas that may expose you to risk, whether it's your legal documents, your beneficiary designations, which, just FYI, you can designate a beneficiary on almost any type of account In your taxable accounts or bank accounts. That beneficiary designation is often called a payable on death POD or transfer on death TOD account. So you're not just limited to your retirement accounts, but do review those and do update them.

Speaker 1:

And then, number seven, do a financial health check. So this is like the big picture, whatever I didn't miss or whatever I missed in number one through six. But if you can get a lay of the land financially in terms of several things, one is hopefully you have some goals that are achievable and some perhaps that are aspirational. One goal might be like hey, I want to increase my net worth over time and that just doesn't. That doesn't only mean have more money in your bank and in investment accounts, it also means perhaps grow your real estate or business assets and have less debt. And when you add up all your assets and subtract the liabilities or debts, then the bottom line is your net worth. So maybe you want to refresh and update your net worth. You may never have done this before or, if you have, it may have been a while and you can measure your progress and hopefully give yourself an attagirl.

Speaker 1:

If you do this exercise right now, if you have goals and they've been achieved, give yourself credit, but also talk with yourself as a family, with your partner, about what you want to achieve over time and and give yourselves credit on areas that you think are going well and potentially identify areas that you think could be better, so that you're able to, you know, really be intentional and not just kind of accidental in terms of the way your financial life is integrating and supporting your real life, your experiences, the work that you do, all of the good things. Use this time and space to get an assessment. Small adjustments, like nudging up your retirement or checking a few things off the list that you really want to do, or having that meeting to get a sense of how investments are going All of those can be huge and powerful when it comes to making progress over time, when it comes to investing. What I would encourage you and challenge you to do as a listener today is take just one or two tasks that I've mentioned and make a commitment from now until early November, for this fall time of year, to kind of get things done before the hustle and bustle of the year ends starts. If you can even accomplish one or two things, I will just applaud you. Feel like that's a good thing and it sets the tone for success in the new year.

Speaker 1:

There's no time like the present and, as always, remember, when it comes to money, progress is much better than perfection. You're never going to be exactly perfect. You're never going to have everything done on your list. You're never going to be exactly perfect. You're never going to have everything done on your list. But even as I was recording this episode, I was remembering a to-do task that I and my husband have for our vacation home that relates to money, and I'm going to get that done as soon as I sign off on the call. If you can get those things done too, let us know how it's going. Have a great week and we'll look forward to talking to you next week.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for listening to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. If you found value in this episode, the best way that you can support the podcast is to forward an episode to a friend or leave a review. Go to proplancom and the podcast link to get all the resources and links mentioned. This presentation by Pearl Planning is intended for general information purposes only. No portion of this presentation serves as a receipt of or a substitute for, personal investment advice from Pearl Planning or any other investment professional of your choosing. Personal investment advice from Pearl Planning or any other investment professional of your choosing.

Speaker 2:

Copies of Pearl Planning's current rent and disclosure brochure and form CRS discussing our advisory services and fees are available upon request or on our website platform at pearlplancom. The information that we share is meant to educate and inspire, not serve as personalized financial advice. Everyone's situation is unique, so be sure to consult with your own financial professional for guidance that fits your life. And just so you know, the opinions shared in this podcast are Melissa's own and those of her guests. They don't necessarily represent any organizations with which Melissa is affiliated. For more important disclosures, please go to our webpage at proplancom.

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Melissa Joy, CFP

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