We have made it to 2025 y’all.  If you have decided that working on your finances is a goal for 2025, WELCOME to Finances with Carolina LLC!! I am so happy you are here. In this newsletter, I want to share how my household did in 2024 and actionable items for anyone that wants to work on their personal finance 🙂

January✨ is the month to review our household spending

I am writing this newsletter while visiting long time friends, who are having their first baby. So here are some traveling metaphors regarding finances. Would you start a long road trip without checking how much gas⛽ your car has? Most likely, no. The same way you would look if you have gas before starting this hypothetical trip🚗, I encourage you to check how much gas you have before starting the roadtrip of 2025.

My 👏household 👏walks 👏the👏talk

Although we have tried a couple of apps and programs, we still use “the old and reliable” google sheet for the tracking of our expenses. My household spent about the same amount of money in 2024 as we did in 2023. I consider this spending a MAJOR success due to 2 reasons. 1)We both got salary increases and we did not increase our spending significantly. 2) The cost of living from June 2023 to June 2024 increased, but our household expenses stayed similar

The top expenses were the typical big 3: housing🏠 (17K), transportation🚗 (5K), and groceries (8K). We ate out 🍔less than last year (4.5K), had an expensive party (4K) which we plan on having every 5 years. We also bought stuff for our home 🛍️(3.5K), spoiled our Zuko🐕 (3.5K), and traveled✈️ a little bit to see friends but mostly family (3K). My health 💊(3.5K) was not awesome this year and on top of that I signed up for a 0% payment plan for my endometriosis surgery💉(4K) which we will finish paying off in 2026.

Tangent on medical bills and your credit 💸💊

Speaking of our health, I have some uplifting news. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently finalized a rule to remove medical bills from credit reports. Thus, medical debt no longer can mess with your credit score. Chronic conditions, such my endometriosis (which I have), present a real economic burden for women. A study in the US, found that endometriosis patients incurred significantly higher healthcare costs in the first year post-diagnosis compared to patient controls (average of $10,000). If you ever need to negotiate medical debt, NPR has a great Life Kit episode that walks you through simple steps about medical debt negotiation

Actionable Items for 2025🚀

Instead of reinventing the wheel, I am going to direct you to an amazing resource by Paula Pant from Afford Anything. Her and her team put together a list of 52 actionable items that you can do weekly to improve your financial life. My household is doing some of these tweaks, if accountability is what you need, comment here what tweak you will try! If 52 seem overwhelming, below are some suggestions for 3 different levels of tweaks.

Changes 101📚

1. Calculate and automate your emergency fund🚨

2. Wait one week before making online purchases📦

3. Commit to meal planning for one week

4. Replace one disposable product with a reusable one🍴

5. Learn one new financial term this week💸

Changes 202📚

1. Choose one financial metric to track 📊

2. Plan for your annual and seasonal expenses🍂

3. Set up a fun fund 💃

4. Set up a credit monitoring system 🔍

5. Review your tax withholding💰

Graduate level📚

1. Make your home more energy efficient 🔋

2. Design your charitable giving strategy 🎁

3. Create an estate plan💰

4. Map out major expenses (car, laptop, phone)🔍