Five minutes now, before the holidays
A short list of things worth doing this month — and one folder worth starting today.
None of this requires a file cabinet or an appointment. Each task below takes about five minutes. Do them in October and you'll walk into tax season already ahead of it — do them in April and you'll wish you'd read this sooner.
Five-minute tasks
Small checks you can knock out over coffee. Each one only matters because of what it catches.
Check one pay stub
Look at federal tax withheld year to date. Compare it to your total tax on last year's return. If the two numbers are far apart, something changed — better to find out now than in April.
Review your autopays
Pull up a bank or card statement and read every recurring charge out loud. Most households find at least one they forgot about. Cancel it now and you save twelve months, not one.
Update your beneficiaries
Log in to your retirement accounts and life insurance and read the names listed. These override your will — if no one's named, or that person has died, the account can end up in probate.
Priority if there's been a marriage, divorce, birth, or deathConfirm your RMD is scheduled
If you were born 1951–1959, distributions start at 73. If you were born in 1960 or later, they start at 75. After that, the money has to come out by December 31 each year (your first one can wait until April 1 of the following year).
Start gathering now
One folder — paper or digital. Start it today, and add to it as things arrive.
Income documents
W-2s, 1099s, Social Security statements, pension statements, K-1s. They land January through March — file each one the day it shows up instead of hunting for it later.
Last year's return
Find it now. Your preparer needs it, and it's the fastest way to spot what changed.
Receipts that matter
Charitable gifts, significant medical expenses, property tax bills, tuition or student loan interest, closing documents from a home sale or purchase.
Anything that changed
New job, new baby, new address, retirement, marriage, divorce, an inheritance, a home sale. Jot it on a note and drop it in the folder — these are the details people forget to mention.
Want a copy you can print?
Get this checklist as a one-page PDF for the fridge or the folder itself.
