With the holiday season officially underway it can be easy to spend most of your “financial thinking” on all of the holiday gift-giving, traveling and entertaining you will, or would like to be able to, do. But there are five simple things that you may want to consider doing to tie up some financial loose ends and take advantage of a few savings opportunities over the next 4-5 weeks to help get you started on the right foot in the New Year.

Use your flexible spending or health care spending account savings
If you have a flexible spending or health care spending account through your employer, you have been putting away a little bit of money each paycheck toward child care or health care costs. The hitch is most plans are “use it or lose it”-- meaning that you need to spend the money you have built up in the account by year’s end or you lose it. Check with your employer’s human resources department to see how much money you still have left in your account, what expenses are allowed under the plan and use what you have saved up by year’s end to avoid losing those hard earned dollars.

Contribute to your retirement savings plan
If you are participating in a 401(k) savings plan through your employer, check to see how much money you have contributed so far this year. If you haven’t reached the maximum limit, ask if you can make a one-time contribution toward your account or consider whether you could increase your per-paycheck contribution by even just 1% before year-end.

Bank any year-end bonuses or gifts
If you think there’s a chance that you will get a year-end bonus or financial gift, decide now to save that money and use it toward paying off debt or investing for your future goals instead of spending the unexpected “windfall.” Come the post-holiday bill-paying season you’ll be glad you did! Some possible ways you could use the money include: paying down, or paying off, credit card debt or personal loans; paying outstanding taxes, child support or alimony; depositing money into a college savings account, 401(k) retirement savings plan or IRA; or opening a money market fund or CD to begin investing for the first time.

Make a tax-deductible charitable gift
If you itemize deductions on your income tax, you might want to review your charitable giving this year and consider making an end-of-year gift to a nonprofit organization to do well and lower your taxes at the same time. Click here for tips on how to give wisely.

Get a jump start on your New Year’s resolutions
Why wait until January 1 to think about what changes you would like to make in the New Year? Commit to improving your financial health next year and get a jump start on realizing that goal by identifying one thing you could begin doing today to improve your personal financial life. Not sure where to start? Come up with one thing – one topic – about money that you’re not really comfortable with, or something that you know you should be doing but just haven’t gotten around to doing yet. Here are some ideas to jumpstart your resolution-making. This year you could commit to:

• balancing your checkbook
• making, and sticking to, a budget
• actually opening and reading the information that comes with your investments (401(k) retirement savings plan, IRAs, etc.)
• finding a financial advisor to review your financial picture and make recommendations about how to save and invest wisely for your future
• talking with your employer’s Human Resources department to find out what your current benefits are (if your employer provides with you benefits, such as life insurance, health insurance, retirement savings plans, etc.) and then reviewing your benefit options to make changes, if necessary, during the open enrollment period to get the most out of your benefits for your financial future

Just one small step can boost your financial self-confidence and set you on a good, solid path toward a more secure financial future. Get started before the end of the year and this time next year you will be glad you did!