Reflecting On 2024: Your 7 Personal Finance Celebrations | Sixty and Me

Reflecting on 2024, there is much you can celebrate. The most important is basking in the warmth of being with loved ones and sharing gratitude during the Thanksgiving holiday. Here are seven more reasons to celebrate 2024:

#1: Kept Your Money Safe

You wisely made sure your bank accounts are fully insured by the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) by maintaining your account balances below $250,000. Last March, two major banks, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank,both failed. Then in April, another big bank, Republic First Bank also failed.

The FDIC insures deposits only up to $250,000. Many customers at those banks had accounts with deposits greater than $250,000. They suffered much anxiety over losing large sums of money. Fortunately, bank regulators arranged for the failed banks to be taken over. Luckily, those customers came out whole.

Give yourself a hug. You can celebrate keeping your accounts fully insured by the FDIC. You avoided the stress of losing money with uninsured deposits.

#2: Froze Your Credit Reports

You instructed Experian, Equifax and Transunion not to release your credit information without your permission. In early 2024, large amounts of personal information were stolen from Change Healthcare, the largest medical claims processor in the United States.

In August, National Public Data, a large data broker, revealed a major theft and public release of approximately 2.9 billion records containing sensitive personal information. Thieves could use stolen personal information to open new credit accounts such as personal loans, mortgages and credit cards. They would steal the money and leave the liability to the victims to pay.

Congratulate yourself for preventing hackers from using your credit information.

#3: Maintained a Well-Diversified, Low-Cost Investment Portfolio

You have a portfolio custom tailored to your comfort level for stock market downs and ups. The stock market, as represented by the S&P 500 index, declined about 10% in early August. Yet, by the beginning of December, it was up approximately 22% from the beginning of the year.

You can pat yourself on the back for not panicking and not selling when the market drops big. You have the confidence to stay with your investment discipline. You can enjoy seeing the 22% gain in the market during the first 11 months of 2024.

#4: Benefited from Receiving Free, Unbiased Medicare Advice

You achieved clarity and felt comforted in your understanding of Medicare during your meeting with a State Health Insurance Assistance Programs counselor.

Your SHIP counselor provides you with free, objective, top-notch guidance on Medicare. They do not sell insurance or any other product. They are paid by state and local agencies and live in your local area. You might think of them as being similar to a reference librarian at your local library: highly trained, professional, and eager to provide you with objective guidance. Praise yourself for learning to get the most out of your Medicare benefits.

#5: Successfully Appealed an IRMAA Surcharge

IRMAA (Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount) is an extra premium added to premiums you pay for Medicare Part B (doctor visits, outpatient care) and Part D (prescription drugs). The IRMAA extra premium increases the cost of Medicare coverage.

For 2024, IRMAA can add as much as $419.00 monthly to Part B costs, and $81.00 to Part D costs. But you can have IRMAA’s extra premium reduced or eliminated by appealing to the Social Security Administration. Your appeal could be successful if you’ve had a life-changing event.

Such a life-changing event includes work stoppage, loss of income from income-producing property, or loss or reduction of certain kinds of pension income. Congratulate yourself if you had been affected by an IRMAA and successfully had it reduced or eliminated. Celebrate saving significant amounts of money.

#6: Had Home and Auto Insurance

You gave yourself some cushion to pay for unforeseen damage to your car and house. Throughout 2024, a series of natural disasters caused widespread damage. Hurricanes Beryl, Debby, Helene and Milton flooded basements and submerged cars. Tornadoes in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana and Florida blew off roofs and tossed around houses. Wildfires in Washington Wyoming, New York Jennings Creek and California burned down many homes.

You had comfort in knowing your insurance policies could provide you with some money to repair damages and get you back to your normal life.

#7: Reached a Milestone

You can celebrate attaining an age that offers you significant benefits. These milestone ages include:

• 60: Most widowers and widows can start receiving Social Security survivor’s benefits.
• 62: A worker can begin receiving Social Security retirement payments.
• 62: Homeowners can get income flexibility with a HECM reverse mortgage.
• 64 + nine months: First opportunity for most folks to sign up for Medicare.
• 65: Your additional standard deduction might lower your taxes.
• 66 through Age 67: Your Full Retirement Age (FRA) is in this range. At your FRA, you can receive 100% of your earned Social Security retirement benefits.

Time to Celebrate Your Achievements

In summary, congratulate yourself and celebrate your 2024 achievements! By practicing sound financial planning, you weathered 2024’s challenges of critical bank failures, significant data breaches, big stock market drops, and many major natural disasters.

Also, during 2024, you gained the benefits of keeping your money safe, protecting your credit, enjoying the stock market rise approximately 22%, getting free, unbiased Medicare advice, possibly reducing an IRMAA charge, having adequate home and auto insurance, and reaching an important milestone.

Looking forward to 2025, a new government administration will likely make some changes in policies and regulations related to your money. Thus, expect to see challenges for your money, and also opportunities. Your sound financial planning that served you well in 2024 could do so again in 2025.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

What 2024 personal finance achievements are you celebrating? Which achievement has been most meaningful for you? What are you looking forward to in 2025?