37 - Mid-Year Financial Review: The Halfway Mark

Are you on track to hit your financial goals for 2026? It’s officially the halfway mark of the year, which makes it the perfect time for a mid-year check-in. In this episode of "Making Sense of Your Cents," Daniel and Shanna walk you through a simple, four-step review process to ensure your money is still working toward the goals you set in January. We discuss why you should avoid waiting until December to address financial hurdles, how to perform a "Progress Audit" on your primary financial pillars, and how to proactively plan for the upcoming holiday season to avoid year-end panic. Tune in for our actionable tip on the 1% Bump to supercharge your savings, and get ready to finish the year stronger than you started! 

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Transcript

Daniel Hill 0:01

Shanna.

Shanna Browning 0:03

No. Daniel, don't say it.

Daniel Hill 0:06

Shanna. I looked at the calendar this morning and it hit me. It slapped me in the face. It reached right out, grabbed me by the throat, and slapped me and said, We're officially halfway through 2026.

Shanna Browning 0:21

No, take it all back. Were we just talking about New Year's resolutions yesterday? But here we are, staring down the second half of the year.

Daniel Hill 0:32

But you know, it's actually a fantastic time. Just hit the pause button. Most people will wait till December to look back at their money. But honestly, by then it's too late to actually change the outcome of the year.

Shanna Browning 0:46

100% right, Daniel. You're so right. And if you're off track with your budget or your savings goal or you're waiting six more months to address it, it's just digging that deeper hole.

Daniel Hill 0:57

And that's why today we are dedicating this day as the mid-year financial review. Woo! We're not gonna shoot fireworks.

Shanna Browning 1:10

You just get my little drama.

Daniel Hill 1:13

We're not gonna go out and barbecue. I mean, you can if you want to, but what we are going to do is help you figure out what's actually working, what needs tweaked, and how to finish 2026 even stronger than you started. Welcome back to this week's episode of Making Sense of Your Cents. I'm Daniel Hill.

Shanna Browning 1:43

And I'm Shanna Browning. And today we're doing a full checkup. We're gonna check in on your financial health. As Daniel said, it's the halfway point of the year, and it's the perfect time to just reset, recalibrate, and make sure your money is still working toward the goals you set in January.

Daniel Hill 2:00

So, Shanna, what we need to do first is start by looking back at January U. Yep. Most people set big ambitious goals, right? Save a specific amount, pay off that credit card, build that emergency fund.

Shanna Browning 2:18

And life happens, right? Everything changes. So January to June, but by now, those January goes usually feel like a distant, slight, really blurry memory.

Daniel Hill 2:29

Exactly. So step one of this review is just being honest. Ask yourself, did I hit those goals? If not, why was the goal too big? Was life just busy? You know, what what happened?

Shanna Browning 2:46

And it's just you saying this to yourself. So be honest about it. It's okay. And so I find a lot of people don't actually know if they're even on track, they just have a vague gut feeling that they're okay.

Daniel Hill 2:58

But you know, okay isn't a strategy. Nope. You need to look at the hard numbers. Have you checked your account balances? Have you actually reviewed your spending?

Shanna Browning 3:09

And it's not about beating yourself up. No. And it's not about what you didn't do, it's about looking at the data so that you can make smarter, more realistic moves for the next six months.

Daniel Hill 3:24

So, what's a good way to look at those numbers without feeling overwhelmed?

Shanna Browning 3:30

I tell people just pull up the last three months of your bake statements. Look for your trends. Are you spending more on dining out than you thought? Is your grocery bill keeping up? Because let's be honest, everybody's grocery bill is creeping up right now, right?

Daniel Hill 3:44

And that's a really great low stress way to start. Don't look at the whole year or half a year. Look at the last three months, 90 days. And it's usually enough to tell you exactly where your money is going.

Shanna Browning 4:01

That's right. And be specific. Don't just say to yourself or into your head, I spent too much. Say I spent $300 more on coffee or dining out than I intended. And we can blame that coffee on paper. I know it. It's their fault.

Daniel Hill 4:18

You know, because you can't fix too much. But you can fix that coffee habit or spending too much on streaming services. You can fix that. You can make that adjustment.

Shanna Browning 4:31

Yep. And you have to be specific to be successful. Let me say that again. You have to be specific to be successful. If you don't know the why behind your spending, you can't build a plan on a foundation. Oh, that's so good.

Daniel Hill 4:49

That's so good. And you know, instead of just auditing subscriptions, let's do a broader progress audit. How are we doing on the big categories?

Shanna Browning 5:02

And I loved this shift right here. It's more holistic. So let's talk about those three pillars: savings, debt, and fixed cost.

Daniel Hill 5:11

So pillar one is your savings. Are we on track for our emergency fund? Did we hit that mid-year target? If not, why?

Shanna Browning 5:20

Why did you not? Was it inflation? Yes. Or was it a lifestyle creep? It's important to identify why that money didn't make it to the savings.

Daniel Hill 5:32

Exactly. Now, pillar two, that's debt. How does the balance on your debt look compared to January? Are we paying off that high interest card or are we just treading water?

Shanna Browning 5:47

And pillar three, fixed cost. This is where we look at the essentials: your housing, your insurance, utilities.

Daniel Hill 5:56

Your escrow account.

Shanna Browning 5:58

Yeah.

Daniel Hill 5:58

We just talked about that a couple episodes ago. That's right. You know, Shanna, this actually reminds me of our financial spring cleaning episode, episode number 30. We spent a lot of time talking about how to declutter your financial life then. And this really is a perfect, broader follow-up.

Shanna Browning 6:17

Totally agree with that. And so in episode 30, we talked about organizing the accounts and cleaning out the digital clutter. So if you followed that advice that we kind of gave you back in the spring, your audit today would be and should be so much easier. You aren't searching for statements anymore, they're organized.

Daniel Hill 6:36

Exactly. And if you sign up for e-statements, you have easy access to them right on your mobile app, right in your hand. And use the systems that we built during our spring cleaning session. If you haven't done it yet, I encourage you to go back, listen to episode 30. It's the foundational work that makes this halfway review so much more effective.

Shanna Browning 7:02

I totally agree with that. And so it's about building on those habits. You don't just spring clean once and quit, you maintain the system. So we've looked at our goals, we've cut the dead weight, and we've audited our pillars. Okay, Daniel.

Daniel Hill 8:18

What about the next six months? Because it'll be Christmas before you.

Shanna Browning 8:22

I know.

Daniel Hill 8:23

We have to look ahead. What's coming up? Back to school costs, holiday spending, maybe that late summer vacation.

Shanna Browning 8:34

Most people wait until those are expenses that have hit to deal with them. And that is a recipe for financial stress.

Daniel Hill 8:41

Exactly. This is the time to start budgeting for December now. If you know you usually spend a thousand dollars on Christmas, start setting aside money each week starting in July.

Shanna Browning 8:58

That turns a potential holiday crisis into a non-event. There's a lot of stress around the holidays. So let's make it a non-event.

Daniel Hill 9:08

It's about proactive planning instead of reactive panic. You adjust your savings goals now. The end of the year becomes so, so much smoother. It's about controlling your money instead of your money controlling you.

Shanna Browning 9:21

Absolutely. Best sentence it's about controlling your money instead of your money controlling you. And don't forget inflation or the unexpected cost increases. We're all dealing with it. Gas prices, grocery cost, these things change. Did you account for higher utility bills in the summer?

Daniel Hill 9:40

Those are the hidden shocks. You know, we talked about this in our understanding escrow episode. They do change. And reviewing your budget now allows you to shift money from flexible categories to essential ones before you even get in trouble. So we get a lot of questions and we want to take some time to answer those. What people want to know is when it's too late to change things up.

Shanna Browning 10:15

And a big one is what if I have completely failed my goals so far? Do I just give up and wait till next year? Like the resolutions, right? If you haven't completed them by January, I'm just gonna quit.

Daniel Hill 10:27

We're done. Yeah. Absolutely not. There is no such thing as a failed year when you're still in June. You still have six months.

Shanna Browning 10:37

And I love that. You can achieve a lot in six months. You can achieve a lot in 30 days. It's enough time to turn the ship around.

Daniel Hill 10:46

We had someone else ask us how do I make sure I just I don't just forget these new mid-year goals in another two weeks? I don't want to go. Accountability, right? Yes. Yeah.

Shanna Browning 10:57

Accountability. Tell somebody, put it on your calendar, write it down, put it on a post-it note in front of your in your mirror. Make it a habit. Don't just make a wish, make it a system.

Daniel Hill 11:09

Maybe set a recurring reminder on your phone for the first of every month to just check on those specific goals. And I would say even go a step further, automate it. Yeah. Use the mobile app to automate your transfers to your savings goals. That way you don't even have to think about it.

Shanna Browning 11:28

Yep. And that's a simple high-tech, which Daniel loves, high-tech way to just stay on top of it.

Daniel Hill 11:35

This really has been some great information. And so let's leave everyone with one concrete, impactful, actionable tip.

Shanna Browning 11:48

All right. Your actionable tip for this week is the 1% bump. Increase your automated savings or retirement contribution by just 1%. If you haven't started, start today at 1% through the end of the year.

Daniel Hill 12:07

And you know, it sounds tiny, right? But if you increase your automated savings or your retirement by just 1%, you probably won't even notice it in your take-home pay. But that 1% adds up significantly over the next six months and beyond. It's the easiest way to give your future self a raise.

Shanna Browning 12:30

You know, Daniel, looking back at our mid-year progress really, really, really puts things in perspective. It is so easy to get caught up in the daily grind and just lose sight of the bigger goal. But today's progress audit reminded me that we're still very much in the driver's seat for the rest of 2026.

Daniel Hill 12:49

Exactly. Don't look at this review as a critique of what you haven't done. Look at it as a roadmap for what you can do in the next six months. You have plenty of time to recalibrate.

Shanna Browning 13:03

And to you all, our listeners, take that 1% challenge to heart this week. We said it was a bump, but I'm going to go back and say if you can't do a 1% bump or you never started it, 1%. That's your challenge this week. And it's one of the most painless ways to build the real momentum.

Daniel Hill 13:23

It absolutely is. And next week, we've got a really exciting one for you.

Shanna Browning 13:28

Yes, we do.

Daniel Hill 13:29

Investments 101, building long-term wealth. If you've ever felt intimidated by investments or just wanted a clear, simple path forward, you absolutely need to catch this episode.

Shanna Browning 13:45

And the way to catch that episode is to make sure you're subscribed so that the episode lands in your feed on Tuesday morning.

Daniel Hill 13:53

And we want to thank you for trusting us with your time today. We'll be right back here next week. And until then, go out and make some sense of your cents of the