Smart financial habits to incorporate in 2026

One small adjustment can result in major shifts to your financial life

(Image credit: Wongsakorn Napaeng / Getty Images)

While you certainly do not have to wait for the beginning of the new year to overhaul your financial habits, the calendar’s fresh start can offer a natural opportunity to reassess. But all too often, when we identify an area of our life that is not quite going as planned, there is a temptation to tear it all down and start from scratch, in the form of a broad-ranging — and overwhelming — resolution.

Sometimes, though, making small tweaks to existing habits, or introducing some fresh ones, is all it takes to course correct, allowing one good financial decision to snowball into the next. Sounds more manageable, right? Read on for some ideas to get started.

1. Dial up your retirement contributions

Increasing the amount you are diverting to retirement savings is easy enough to do, and it can make a sizable impact over time. As an illustration, a “worker who raises contributions by just 1% in their mid-20s — starting at a 5% rate and bumping up to 8% over three years — could accumulate about $84,000 more by retirement than someone who never increases their rate,” said Investopedia, citing analysis by J.P. Morgan.

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While on first glance, diverting more of your funds may seem like a stretch for your budget, “often, you can increase your retirement contributions without making a meaningful difference to your current lifestyle,” especially if the increments are smaller, such as an increase of 1%, said Yahoo Finance.

2. Start tracking your spending

This is another small adjustment that can result in major shifts to your financial life, both in terms of your understanding of where your money is going and in how much you spend. Once you start paying closer attention to your expenditures, you might realize that “some impulse purchases that you shrug off on a regular basis might be having a bigger impact on your bottom line than you think,” said Citizen’s Bank. This can also provide an opportunity to evaluate whether your spending is actually aligned with your larger goals (more on that next).

There are a variety of apps you can use to make this tracking super simple, or you can always make a simple spreadsheet to update regularly.

3. Set goals and intentionally work toward them

When it comes to saving, budgeting or investing, it can be hard to get motivated if you do not know what you are getting motivated for. Defining your financial goals, both for the short- and long-term, can provide you with some much-needed clarity, and also ensure you start taking the actions necessary to actually achieve those goals.

What shape these goals take is entirely up to you. For instance, “one person’s goals might be to pay off their student loans and save for a down payment on a house,” while “another might want to sock away enough cash in an online bank account to start their own business down the road,” said SoFi. It is really all about making your money work for you, instead of the other way around.

Becca Stanek has worked as an editor and writer in the personal finance space since 2017. She previously served as a deputy editor and later a managing editor overseeing investing and savings content at LendingTree and as an editor at the financial startup SmartAsset, where she focused on retirement- and financial-adviser-related content. Before that, Becca was a staff writer at The Week, primarily contributing to Speed Reads.