The end of the year rarely feels slow. Deadlines stack up, holidays crowd the calendar, and reflection competes with everything else. Somewhere in that noise is a brief chance to pause.
Year-end planning is that pause. It is not another demand on your time but a way to bring order to what is already in motion, a calm finish to an unpredictable year.
The U.S. tax code changes constantly. Analysts estimate there were more than 4,000 revisions in the past decade, and this year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) extended several provisions that were set to expire. Laws evolve; the habits that make planning effective rarely do.
In my Fall Financial Checklist, I wrote about five year-end decisions that reinforce confidence. This article looks more closely at one of them: the tax moves still within reach.
1. Begin Where You Have Control
Start with what already sits inside your paycheck or bank account. The easiest way to strengthen a plan is to refine what you are already doing.
Retirement plans
Check your 401(k) or 403(b) contributions. Even a small increase for the final pay periods can reduce this year’s taxable income and build next year’s savings momentum. For 2025, you can contribute up to $23,000, plus $7,500 if you are 50 or older.
Self-employed professionals can still open or fund a Solo 401(k) or SEP IRA. Starting early keeps January from turning into a rush of forms and deadlines.
Progress, not precision, is what matters. A two-percent increase today becomes a habit by the next pay cycle.
Health Savings Account (HSA)
If you enrolled in a high-deductible health plan, your HSA is worth paying attention to. It offers three tax advantages: deductible contributions, tax-free growth, and tax-free withdrawals for qualified health expenses.
For 2025, limits are $4,300 individual / $8,550 family, plus $1,000 if you are 55 or older. Although contributions can be made until April 15, funding now allows more time for compounding.
Learn more: IRS Publication 969 – Health Savings Accounts
Something to consider. Many families hesitate to use HSA funds for care because it feels like spending their own savings. That hesitation is understandable; it is hard to swipe a card tied to money you worked to set aside. Yet skipping or delaying medical attention can create larger costs later.
In Open Enrollment: Make Your Benefits Work for You This Year, I explored that emotional tradeoff and how reframing the HSA as a tool for well-being, not just savings, can ease the stress of those choices. The same perspective applies here: good planning should support both your health today and your confidence about tomorrow.
Once the basics are in order, many families turn their attention to giving.
2. Give with Intention
Charitable giving connects money with purpose when it is planned rather than rushed. Thoughtful giving clarifies values and simplifies tax time.
Bunching donations
If you usually take the standard deduction, you can “bunch” multiple years of gifts into one. Giving $10,000 this year instead of $5,000 over two years may allow you to itemize and increase the deduction’s value. The generosity is the same; the timing changes.
Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs)
A DAF is a charitable account opened through a public charity or an investment firm. You contribute cash or securities, receive an immediate deduction, and later recommend grants to nonprofits. It consolidates receipts and gives you time to decide where funds can have the most impact.
Some critics note that DAF balances can remain idle for years, while sponsors encourage regular granting. The key is using the account as a bridge: give now, distribute soon, rather than as a permanent parking place.
Major custodians such as Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard offer straightforward DAF programs with low minimums.
Appreciated investments
Donating appreciated shares instead of cash can avoid capital-gains tax and provide a deduction for full market value. This approach rebalances your portfolio while supporting causes that matter.
Once you finish giving decisions, it helps to revisit your investments with the same mindset: quiet, steady maintenance.
3. Use Market Movement to Your Advantage
Markets rise and fall. You cannot control their direction, but you can shape how each swing affects you. Here are a couple of strategies to consider for your taxable investment accounts.
Tax-loss harvesting
Selling an investment at a loss can offset realized gains or up to $3,000 of ordinary income. To maintain your allocation, reinvest in a similar but not “substantially identical” fund. The wash-sale rule disallows the deduction if the same or nearly identical security is purchased within a 61-day window - 30 days before the sale and 30 days after the sale.
Loss harvesting is not a prediction; it is routine upkeep, like rebalancing or reviewing insurance coverage.
Tax-gain harvesting
Some years, intentionally realizing gains can strengthen long-term flexibility. If your taxable income falls within the 0 or 15 percent capital-gains bracket, you may be able to sell appreciated holdings, pay little or no tax, and later repurchase them after the required waiting period.
Doing so resets the cost basis, the number used to calculate future taxable gains, at today’s price.
Example: Suppose you bought a stock for $50 that now trades at $70. Selling it while in a low bracket and repurchasing it at $70 establishes that as your new basis. If the stock later rises to $90, only the $20 gain is taxable, not $40.
When done within IRS rules and coordinated with a tax professional, realizing gains in a low-income year can reduce future taxes.
4. Recheck Withholding and Estimates
After reviewing investments, turn to cash flow. If your income changed because of a promotion, bonus, or equity vesting, review your W-4 withholding or estimated tax payments. Over-withholding limits flexibility; under-withholding adds stress later.
Self-employed individuals should confirm that their final quarterly payment aligns with actual earnings. Ten minutes now often removes months of uncertainty.
Predictability is its own reward.
5. Keep Perspective as Rules Shift
Thousands of tax-code revisions and periodic legislation remind us that complexity is permanent. Waiting for a stable environment is a form of delay. Acting on steady fundamentals such as saving, giving, rebalancing, and reviewing works in every environment.
The OBBBA adjusted some thresholds and extended prior deductions, but none of that changes the value of consistent review. Confidence grows from repetition, not from tracking each policy headline.
6. Behavioral Insight: Why Small Wins Matter
Most people postpone planning because they want to feel prepared before acting. In practice, preparation follows movement.
A Fidelity study found that households with written plans were twice as likely to feel confident about their financial future as those without one. Each small win (funding an account, finishing a gift, updating withholding) creates proof that you are managing change instead of reacting to it.
That quiet proof is what steadies most families through uncertain times.
7. A Four-Week Framework
You can finish these steps gradually, one week at a time. The sequence keeps the process realistic while preserving momentum.
Week 1: Review 401(k), IRA, and HSA contributions.
Week 2: Finalize charitable gifts or DAF contributions.
Week 3: Rebalance investments and evaluate gain- or loss-harvesting opportunities.
Week 4: Adjust withholding or estimated payments.
Completion is helpful; consistency is better.
8. Closing Reflection
Every fall, professionals reach this point feeling both organized and unfinished. That tension is natural. The goal is not perfection before December 31 but progress that continues into January.
Tax law will keep changing, just as life will. A simple, repeatable review — calm and consistent — is what turns financial management from stress into structure. The habit itself becomes the reward.
Financial planning should be available for everyone. Let’s explore how it can bring clarity and confidence to your life.
D’Agaro Financial Advisory is a Registered Investment Adviser located in Virginia. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. This content is for educational purposes only and is not tax, legal, or investment advice.