The Top Financial Goal for a Secure Future

As we welcome Christmas and move through the heart of the holiday season, I am sending you the biggest wishes for happiness and health.

In between the celebrating and maybe some time off, I know this is when many of you are thinking about how to make the coming year even better.

And that often revolves around financial goals.

That’s obviously great news as far as I am concerned, but I want to make sure you are set up for success.

And I think that boils down to setting one or two achievable goals. Not five. And not huge reaches. But practical goals where you can see your progress every month.

Each of you has your own personal financial goal To Do list. But again, I hope you start the year focused on just one or two items, and then as you build momentum with those goals, maybe you start tackling others. I just don’t want you to overload yourself right from Jan 1, and then give up by mid-February because it’s too much.

My Must-Do 2026 Financial Goal

It is always smart to be working on building up an emergency savings fund that can cover at least eight months of your household’s living costs. And right now it seems especially important. There are so many unknowns with the direction of the U.S economy. I am not saying there will be a recession or that unemployment will rise in 2026. But the uncertainty about how the economy will perform in the coming year is not clear.

Amid that uncertainty, my hope is that you will be as financially prepared as possible to weather any economic and financial curveballs that may come your way in 2026 (and beyond).

If you haven’t started on an emergency savings fund, now is the time. If you have two months of living costs saved up, that’s great. Now work on getting that up to three months covered. Have five months of living costs sitting in a federally insured bank or credit union savings account? Fantastic! Can you get it to six months?

I hope you resolve to make 2026 a year of building more financial security. The foundation of that will always be having an emergency savings fund that can help you navigate economic storms whenever they hit.