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Once a year, your money deserves an honest hour. Not a spreadsheet marathon, not a New Year resolution that dies by February: one sitting, seven questions, straight answers. I run this check-in every January, and it finds something fixable every single time. Grab last year’s statements and go through it with me; it works in any month you happen to be reading this.
Question 1: Did I spend less than I earned?
The only question that decides whether the year moved you forward. Take total income, subtract total spending, look at the number without flinching. Positive: everything else is optimisation. Negative: stop here, find the leak first; the big-seven budget guide is built exactly for that.
Question 2: Did I reach my financial goal for the year?
If you set one, judge it honestly: hit, missed, or “life happened”. If you never set one, that is the finding. One number for the coming year, written down, is worth more than ten intentions: an amount saved, a debt cleared, a 3a maxed.
Question 3: Am I closer to the long-term goals?
Retirement pot, property deposit, the leave-my-job fund: did the balance actually grow, and did the plan behind it survive contact with reality? A year with no progress on the big goals is usually a year the money sat in the wrong place; the ETF guide and 3a comparison are the standard fixes.
Question 4: Is the emergency fund untouched?
Three to six months of spending, boring account, no exceptions. Touched it this year? Refill before anything else. Never had one? That is priority one, ahead of any investing. And if it quietly grew far beyond six months: the surplus is capital standing around unemployed.
Question 5: Did I optimize my taxes?
The Swiss trinity: 3a contribution (deductible), pension fund buy-ins if they make sense for you, and actually claiming every deduction in the return, home office, commuting, further education. An hour with the tax guide pays better than most side hustles.
Question 6: Did I review my contracts?
Health insurance model and franchise (November deadline), phone and internet, insurance duplicates, the bank fees you stopped noticing. Contracts drift expensive when unwatched; a calendar reminder per contract beats good intentions. If your everyday account still costs money, the best-bank shortlist ends that today.
Question 7: Did I talk to my employer about money?
Salary review, pension fund options, benefits you never claimed, further-education budgets. The income side of your finances has exactly one negotiating partner, and silence is a raise for them, not for you. Book the conversation before the year’s budget is spoken for.
Closing thoughts
Seven questions, one honest hour, and you know more about your money than most people learn in a year. Write the three findings down, fix the worst one this month, and put the next check-in in the calendar twelve months out. Same time next year, the answers get better.
This is an evergreen check-in, reworked on 9 August 2026. No sponsors, no product placement; the linked guides are my own.
