Halfway through the year, I caught myself mid-scroll through my 401(k) on my phone, genuinely not knowing how much I was actually contributing. This wasn’t a hypothetical. It was a revelation sitting at my kitchen table with the June statements spread out and a slightly cold glass of water in front of me.
My math isn’t my gift — I learned long ago I think in pictures and checklists, not spreadsheets. So I made myself a page that says: this is everything you’re supposed to look at in July, and only that. No more doom-scrolling your accounts wondering if something is quietly wrong.
Check your 401(k) contribution rate
Here’s the one that got me. The contribution limit in the 401(k) this year is $24,500, if you’re 50 and over, you can add more on top of that, but most people — including me — have just left their percentage alone since the day they got the job. I genuinely believed I was saving a ‘reasonable’ amount. It took five minutes to look at the actual number.
Some people do that once and never touch it again. How much are you actually on track to save this year? If the number makes you wince or shrug, July is the right month to nudge it up, because you still have enough paychecks left to make a real difference without cramming an impossible amount into the last few weeks. Tiny percentage raises stack up fast.
Look at your beneficiaries right now
This one scared me a little, in the good way. Most retirement accounts and IRAs have a named beneficiary that completely skips probate. If you’ve had any life events, like a marriage, a divorce, or a loss, your beneficiary on file may be someone you stopped thinking about years ago. I checked my life insurance, my brokerage, my 401(k), and even the bank accounts that most people don’t think about. Five minutes per account, and I’m actually sleeping better about it.
Pull up your tax withholding
Don’t just trust what’s coming out of your paycheck every two weeks. There are some temporary tax deductions out there from the last year’s tax bill, and they matter if you’re 65 or older. The new senior bonus deduction gives filers 65 and up an extra $6,000 deduction, or $12,000 if both spouses qualify. This deduction lasts through 2028, which may change how much you should be withholding.
This isn’t just a retirement thing. There are adjustments for tipped workers and people who work a lot of overtime too. I called my accountant and asked how my withholdings should look right now. It’s a five-minute call to avoid a refund surprise in April.
If you’re 70.5 or older: plan your QCD now, not in December
This one isn’t for everyone. If you’re at 70.5 and you have money in your IRA, there’s a qualified charitable distribution (QCD) that lets you send money directly from the IRA to a charity and it doesn’t count as income. The cap for individuals this year is $111,000.
I know people who wait until December and scramble to move the money before the calendar turns over. In a panic, it’s very easy to make a mistake or miss the deadline with the custodian. If you’re going to do it at all, do it now when you actually have time to think it through instead of rushing at year-end.
Check if your portfolio actually matches your plan
The market has been moving a lot over the past years. If you had a target allocation — a particular split of stocks to bonds forever, for example — and you haven’t rebalanced in a while, you may not be where you think you are. Stock accounts actually tend to get overweighted when they do well. Rebalancing is a simple way to manage risk, and if you use a target-date fund, it’s handled for you automatically.
Get organized, or at least start
Here’s the embarrassing one. I was recently asked by a friend if I could explain my finances to my husband if anything happened to me. I did the honest thing and said, ‘I’ll make a list over the weekend.’ The mid-year is a perfectly legitimate time to consolidate those old 401(k)s from past jobs into a single rollover IRA — just be careful, because retirement account fees are often higher than 401(k) fees. Close out the bank accounts that have been empty for years. Whatever makes the whole picture easier to hand off to someone else.
Small move. I’ll be glad I did it. Pick one thing from this list and do it this weekend — literally, take five minutes and open the account you’ve been avoiding.