Your Financial To-Do List Before December 31st

November 13, 2025·26 min

Scott Frank and Nick Cavio open by joking about IRMAA and the kind of acronym everyone knows well enough to dread. The tone stays easy, but the point is still serious. They want listeners looking at the year before it ends, not after it does. The conversation centers on what can still change before year end. They talk through income, taxes, and retirement contributions as practical planning problems. Scott keeps coming back to the idea that once the calendar turns, some options are gone. Nick helps translate the rules into plain household language. They spend time on investing and the question of gains. The goal is not to chase a perfect outcome. It is to decide whether it makes sense to realize gains now or leave room for a later year. That becomes a broader reminder not to leave useful planning on the table. Charitable giving is the next major topic. They compare itemizing with taking the standard deduction. If someone is giving anyway, they ask whether the structure of the gift can do more work. That is where donor advised funds come in. They explain bunching in a way that makes the math easy to picture. A person who gives the same amount every year may get more value by concentrating several years of gifts into one tax year. They also touch on qualified charitable distributions for people over 70. Medicare income adjustments come up as well. The conversation keeps circling back to the same habit: check the numbers before the year closes. There is a brief aside about Social Security timing and the earnings test, but they leave that for another day. The episode stays focused on useful year-end moves and the tradeoffs around them.

As heard by us

A practical year-end money checklist that stays grounded in real financial choices.

Scott Frank and Nick Cavio frame year-end money planning as a set of manageable choices rather than a looming chore. The episode moves through practical steps people may still weigh before the calendar turns, including the tax picture, 401(k) contributions, capital gains, and…

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Your year-end money checklist before the calendar turns.

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