Financial Tips From A Chartered Financial Analyst (2026)

Saving money on financial tips from chartered does not have to be complicated. We rounded up the essentials so you can spend less and skip the guesswork.

Key Takeaways

• Share with your friends!FacebookPinterestMessengerWhatsAppEmailShareFlipboardRedditSMSX This is a post about money from Greg, CFA.
• Speak to your Financial Advisor before following any of this guidance.
• Table of Contents Understand Your Outflow Make a BudgetMake Sure Your Savings Are SavingsMax Out Your 401kImprove Your 401k HoldingsAvo...

Share with your friends!FacebookPinterestMessengerWhatsAppEmailShareFlipboardRedditSMSX

This is a post about money from Greg, CFA. Speak to your Financial Advisor before following any of this guidance.

Table of Contents

• Understand Your Outflow 
• Make a Budget
• Make Sure Your Savings Are Savings
• Max Out Your 401k
• Improve Your 401k Holdings
• Avoid Emotional Spending
• Harvest Losses
• Lower your Taxable Income
• Borrow Less
• Consider Paying PMI
• Improve Your Credit Score
• Switch Out Your Air Filters!

Understand Your Outflow 

Use this time of the year to understand where your money goes.  It’s difficult to stick to a budget, but it isn’t difficult to understand where you spend.  Take that first step at looking at all of your credit card receipts and all of the outgoing payments from your bank accounts. 

If nothing else you will notice themes and opportunities to cut back (e.g. subscriptions and recurring payments!).  Then in a few months when you receive your W2 and other income related tax documents you can have the foundation to build a budget.

Make a Budget

You would not expect to build a house without a blueprint. Why, then, do you expect your budget to work itself out without really writing everything down and planning everything out?

Creating a budget is surprisingly simple. It may seem overwhelming because most of us weren’t taught budgeting in school or from our parents. It is simply a question of how much of your money is going where.

Sit down and take a good look at the money you are taking in and the money you are spending. Decide how much of that money is needed for necessities. From there you can determine how much of your earnings should be put into savings and how much extra can be spent.

If you find you’re paying too much for hosting services, consider switching to a more cost-effective web host. If you’re struggling to pay credit card bills and worried about whether or not you have a good credit score, then a budget will also help you get on a better path to amending that.

Tools like Quicken can help you create and manage a budget. I personally use Excel and Google Sheets.

We’ve turned our best tips into quick-read books, and we’re publishing new ones every week. See the full collection here: amazon.com/author/chachingqueen.

Make Sure Your Savings Are Savings

Frequently times people will put away their money for “saving” but then quickly dip-into those savings to cover the expenses in their life. If you really want to save money this year, then the money that you plan to save must be put into a specific account and basically forgotten about.

You need to change your mindset about the money. It must be mentally considered un-spendable money rather than back up plan money.

When planning your initial budget, you must make sure that you have accounted for the fact that this money cannot be used to cover small expenses. The only way the money will build up over time is if you do not turn to it to cover flaws in your initial budget.

This may mean putting your money in an entirely separate account than the money that you have allotted yourself to spend.

Your savings money should also be separate from your large-purchases savings.

It may feel like a waste at first to diminish your own earnings, but by taking money away from yourself, you will have more money in the long run. This is the money that will act as a security blanket if a major emergency comes up or as a luxury for a trip down the line.

By really committing to saving your savings, you will, shockingly enough, start to save money!

Max Out Your 401k

Please max out your 401k. If you can’t afford it, then you don’t realize how key it is. Treat maxing out your 401k like you do your taxes. In other words, assume it’s not your money and you need to pay it.

Spending now instead of fully funding your retirement is like stealing from future you. Do not steal from future you. After you max out your 401k, consider where else you can save in tax deferred accounts. HSAs, 529 Plans, IRAs, etc.

Improve Your 401k Holdings

The Financial Services industry has a major flaw. Financial Advisors are generally not compensated for giving financial advice on 401k plans. The major firms are simply afraid of the fiduciary implications of giving advice on assets held elsewhere.

But that doesn’t mean you should randomly pick holdings in your 401k. For example, target funds are very popular. These are funds that have a target date assigned to them and the mutual fund adjusts it’s holdings as time goes on. They’re a good idea. They also have higher fees.

But here’s the thing, if you hold anything else in your account then you are affecting the date of your account. For example if you have a target date fund with a date of 2040, because you plan to retire in 2040 that is fine.

But once you add other funds to the account then you are shortening or lengthening the true target of your retirement. If everything else you hold is conservative, then your target may have moved to 2045. The target date fund just becomes an expensive holding as you add more and more to other funds to your 401k.

But, if you only hold one target date fund in your account then you are putting all of your eggs in one basket.

If your Financial Advisor’s firm is unwilling to give advice on 401ks, consider alternatives like Personal Capital.

Avoid Emotional Spending

The best way to curb spending is to only spend enough to make us happy and not a penny more.  At that point each additional penny is worth less than a penny.  We all want more but “more” rarely makes us happy. 

This is especially true during the holidays.  Buying on emotion is on steroids during the holidays.  Purchase on logic, not emotions.  

Harvest Losses

Look at any securities you have in taxable accounts.  If you notice that any have unrealized losses, talk to your financial advisor about tax loss harvesting. See my recent quote about this on Final Thoughts

Before you check out, double-check financial tips from chartered against current offers and any coupons you can stack. Small habits like this add up to real savings over a year.

Originally published at chachingqueen.com.