Is it just me or is the week between Christmas and New Year’s just the bomb? It’s peaceful with the stress of the holidays mostly behind us. The gift wrap has hit the recycling bin, the turkey dinner leftovers are being enjoyed, and usually I don’t have to work. This leaves me with a wonderful space with which I take all the time needed to review what happened during the year, both financially and otherwise and then plan for the next year. Since this isn’t something that comes naturally for some folks, I thought I’d work through mine and document it here so that you can see my process and take the parts you like best. This is my 2023 Year in Review.
Since I’m a planner, this comes very naturally to me. I understand that it won’t be for many other personalities and that’s ok. You will enjoy the benefits even if you do an abridged version of this.
2023 Year in Review in 9 Easy Steps
- Review your 2022 Year in Review and your 2023 Plan and note any items not completed and why
- Input the last of the December spending and other financial data into your weekly review spreadsheet
- Add the 2023 final figures into the trending charts
- Consider any tax benefits that you could still take advantage of and take steps to do so (RRSP contributions, charitable donations, capital loss harvesting)
- Review everything line-by-line, noting where you are ahead or behind your goals
- Check in to see how closely aligned your spending was to your values
- Document it all so that you can easily review throughout the year and next December
- Non-Financial, check in with the other areas of your life and write down any big wins or losses or areas of growth or those that might need work in the next year
- Social – are you feeling connected and supported by your circle
- Health – how have you been feeling, eating, moving your body? Are you carrying a lot of stress?
- Development – was there an area that you were hoping to learn more about this year and did you do that?
- Professional – Are you satisfied in your work or how healthy was your business this year?
- Time management and other – Were there projects that don’t fit into the above categories that you were hoping to tackle this year? Did you do it? For example, I had intended to do more crafting this year and it totally didn’t happen so I’ll note that in the review and consider why I didn’t do it.
- Make sure that your document is stored in a safe place that you’ll be able to find in December of 2024
Celebrate With Deb C’s 2023 Year in Review
Step #1 – Review your 2022 Year in Review and your 2023 Plan and note any items not completed and why
- 2022: Steady income informed the 2022 goals. All about aggressively paying down some old family debt (done) and growing my net worth (20% growth) while investing heavily in my RRSP and purposely getting some major dental work ($15K) all done in one year so that I could drop down my income tax rate and put a few more dollars back into our pockets (should have been 28% average but dropped to only 8% average tax rate) – yay!
- 2023: I knew that there were some outside factors that would affect my earning abilities in 2023 and moving forward – so my financial goals reflected this.
| 2023 Planned | 2023 Actual |
| Adjust spending to minimize drawdown from my emergency fund to $2K in non-earning months as I set up the business. | I actually stayed with my employer until mid-year and earned contract work for the second half of the year so there was no drawdown, instead my net worth grew by 20%! |
| Make 2 major purchases that will reduce the need to make those large purchases in later years when income is less stable or I may not qualify for a loan as a freelancer rather than a permanent employee. | Bought a newer used car with only 2,400 kms on it so it will last at least 10 years and has full warranty. Purchased a beautiful sofabed set to replace the 15 year old set that we had. |
| Secure enough debt to cover any major issues once emergency fund runs out (eg, family court or an illness). | Added a large personal line of credit bringing up our debt space to more than our annual spending – note, that I don’t use this credit except for points/cash back but I pay in full right away so that I don’t incur any interest charges |
| Build the digital business to start earning any revenue. | I haven’t been able to focus on the business as much as I had wanted so I wasn’t able to start really growing my audience until later in the year – but I did make a whopping $7.33 (plus more as a contractor of course) |
Step #2 – Input the last of the December spending and other financial data into my weekly review spreadsheet.
Note, I do this every single Sunday so that I always know where our money is and can see right away if something’s not going according to plan. I’ll share the spreadsheet that I use in a future article on tracking spending.
There were some pleasant (and less pleasant) surprises in this year’s final figures.
- Net worth increased by 20%
- Managed to keep our monthly grocery budget to $501.01
- Not a penny came in for child support again this year
- Income down by 40% from where it would have been
- Considerably knocked down our spending on take out and dining out to $250 per month
- Spending was higher than I intended this year due to unforeseen circumstances at $42K
- We did not take a vacation this year so we’ll want to make sure that’s added back in next year
Step #3 – Add the final 2023 figures into your trending charts.
I started these in 2020 so I have a few years of tracking now. It’s ok if you’re just starting as you’ll have trending charts in only a few years if you get it started this year. This year was very different so it affected much of everything but it’s ok, they still paint an accurate picture of our finances and that’s what we’re looking for.
Step #4 – Consider any tax benefits that you could still take advantage of and take steps to do so (RRSP contributions, charitable donations, tax-loss harvesting).
See a tax professional to help with this. I take care of these throughout the year and don’t have the income stability to add a big chunk into these buckets this month but my tax situation will be fine this year because I have lowered gross income and higher income tax deductions for the first half of the year plus the benefits of business write-offs.
Step #5 – Review everything line-by-line, noting where you are ahead or behind your goals.
I have done this and note a few items above. This step is important as it will help to formulate your goals for 2024. For example, I’ll be looking to further reduce our grocery/dining spending this year as I have more free time for cooking/baking from scratch. I’ll also make sure that we invest in a fun holiday this year seeing that we missed it last year. On the earning side, I will have revenue goals and specific steps outlined to try to meet or beat these goals.
Step #6 – Check in to see how closely aligned your spending was to your values.
This is super important as people so often spend heavily in areas that really don’t bring them joy, or add value to their families and community. It’s so good to check in from time-to-time to make sure that you are acting out your values and your spending is a good litmus test for this.
A good example for me happened last year. I found myself in a situation where I needed to dress formally/fancily for 11 Christmas parties. It was exhausting and I wound up spending a ton of money on a couple of new outfits that I’ll only wear once a year. I kicked myself for this because I did wear what I had and even borrowed a few dresses and it certainly wasn’t necessary but I didn’t even check the thrift stores first to see if I could find something more reasonable priced and save it from the landfill. It was the classic… too busy and/or lazy to take the time to shop around or look for alternatives.
Step #7 – Document it all so that you can easily review throughout the year and next December
I use Google Sheets to track my net worth and spending so I actually draft this review and the new year’s plan right into that document so that I can look back at it as often as weekly. But any system that works for you is also great. You could write it out on the back of napkins if that’s what you like.
Step #8 – Non-Financial, check in with the other areas of your life and write down any big wins or losses or areas of growth or those that might need work in the next year: social, health, personal development, professional, spiritual, time management, etc.
This whole year for us was full of daily challenges that made it so hard to maintain any other healthy habits. Next year might be much of the same but it’s important to at least recognize this and shake it off so that we can make a plan to improve other areas as we come through this season of our lives.
Step #9 – Make sure that your 2023 Year in Review is stored in a safe place that you’ll be able to find in December of 2024
I mention above that I store this doc in digital form with my tracking sheets. You can do the same or keep a hard copy in a safe place at home. What’s important is that you can find it when you need it next or can access it to review it regularly throughout the year.
Congratulations! Now that we’ve done the work, we’ll draw on these learnings to draft our 2024 plans next week. I’ll share mine in a similar way and suggest some areas that you could build some smart goals around, breaking big goals into workable parts, and start seeing successes as soon as possible.
Let’s curate the lives we want and become great stewards of our finances so that we can celebrate today… and tomorrow.
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