Unfinished Sentences and Moving Forward in 2025
By Kate Vaillancourt, Certified Credit Union Financial Counselor (CCUFC)
As 2024 comes to an end and the holiday season is in full swing, many of us feel called upon to reflect on this past year. Did anything wonderful happen? Did we have to work through a crisis? Did we hit any of our goals? Or was 2024 a complete mess? Honestly, I’m not even sure where 2024 went, much less have any desire to reflect upon it. Where does the time go?
One of my goals for 2024 was to have all of my Make Friends with your Finances articles written—maybe not in finished form, but at least in draft form—well before publishing time. Up until December, I was doing pretty well, but when I went to look at what I wrote for December, I found one unfinished sentence staring back at me. Well, I almost made it. So here I am, at the last minute, trying to figure out what words of encouragement or advice I can impart on my readers, and I’m coming up blank. Completely blank.
Is it writer’s block or the stress of the holidays? Who knows? All I know is that there is so much to write about and all I’m thinking about are all the things I still need to do before the end of the year.
As my deadline approaches and the writers block remains present, I can, at least, leave my readers with a few financial highlights from the 2024 blog:
- Make a plan and adjust it if you need to
- Talk to your creditors, especially if they are trying to reach your or if you are having difficulties
- Monitor your credit reports regularly; Acadia FCU provides this free service to our members
- Get involved in your finances and pay close attention to your spending habits
- Talk about scams and fraud to your loved ones, especially those who are more vulnerable
- Start or increase your emergency savings
- Don’t beat yourself up—just move forward if things didn’t go according to plan
- When it comes to your finances, reflect about the good stuff and try not to dwell on the bad
My hope for this past year is that my readers found something useful in this blog, and if not useful, at least entertaining. To quote Red Green (my northern readers might be familiar with this Canadian TV character), “If they don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.”
I hope that I’ve been handy and that everyone can become Better Friends with their Finances in 2025!
If you’d like help making friends with your finances, please reach out to me by sending an email to kvaillancourt@acadiafcu.org or by calling 207-992-1060. Financial counseling services are free to members of Acadia Federal Credit Union.
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December 17, 2024