Once the 1st of July rolls around it's like hitting the reset button on your finances. Clean slate (sorta).

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The first 6 months of this year has already been a wild ride for Australia’s economy with consecutive RBA rate cuts, Donald Trump’s tariff drama, and the Labor government being re-elected with some juicy financial promises (hello HECs discount and more property schemes). 

Needless to say, lots has happened, which means your money situation could also be looking vastly different to how you envisioned it 6 or 12 months ago. 

Now that it’s the new financial year, it’s time to check-in with your goals again and do a stocktake of your situation so you know whether you can keep swimming along…or need to get back on track 🫣 

1. Review your financial goals or set new ones and write them out as SMART goals

It might have been a while since you wrote down your money goals, so let’s start nice and easy by reviewing the goals you set. Or if you haven't already, set some new goals for this new financial year!

The SMART method is when you define your goals in a Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time bound way. When you write out your goals you're 42% more likely to achieve them. 

Here are some questions you might ask yourself when reviewing existing goals:

• Have some of your goals already been ticked off?
• Do you need to make any adjustments or set new goals?
• Are you behind on any of your goals?
• Are there reasons you’re not hitting them within your control?

The idea of asking these questions is to look at where you’re tracking compared to where you’d hope you would be by now.

2. Update your budget

Your finances might have done a full 180 since you last looked at your budget. Which is why it’s important to do a stocktake.

Start by assessing your income, and taking into account any changes to your salary like pay increases or bonuses.

Next your expenses. It’s never fun going through your bank statement and having to face how much you’ve spent on brunch and coffees, but it’s a necessary evil.

Categorise your expenses and compare them to your budgeted expenses.

This will help you get an objective look at your spending and identify if there are areas where you might be able to reduce unnecessary spending and allocate more funds towards your goals.

3. Evaluate your debt

Take a look at your outstanding debts like credit card balances, mortgages, or other loans, and track how they’re progressing.

• Are you where you want to be with your debt?
• Are there any steps in your control that can help you reduce your debt?

Remember, paying off high interest debt can help you work towards your financial goals faster, so it’s important to think of ways you can prioritise paying down any high-interest debt first.

4. Evaluate your savings and investments

Say you’ve spent less money than you’ve earned (congratulations). And let’s say you also receive a juicy tax return from the ATO later this year.

It might be tempting to treat these amounts as free money, blow them on a luxury purchase or a small holiday, but that money can also be really valuable towards your financial goals.

We recommend the 50/30/20 rule, where you allocate 50% of your funds towards your long term money goals, 30% towards investing in yourself and in improving your income and career opportunities, and 20% for the fun stuff.

You might also find when you’re doing your new financial year check-in that you’re not where you wanted to be at this point in time.That’s totally okay. No matter where you are, this exercise isn’t about judging yourself, it’s about making progress towards your financial goals one step at a time.

The new financial year is the perfect time for a money glow-up. Whether you’ve made amazing progress, hit a few bumps, or completely lost track (hey, life happens), the most important thing is that you’re checking in now. 

You’ll thank yourself later. 😉