Half of 2025 is already behind us! This isn’t a time for panic or judgment, but for a purposeful look at your financial journey so far. Did those ambitious New Year’s resolutions stick? Are your financial goals still relevant? A mid-year financial check-up is not about perfection, but about progress and practical adjustments.
I’m starting this as a little mini-series to give myself some structure in my writing – and hopefully give you a framework for staying on track with your money throughout the year. Let’s see where you stand and set yourself up for a strong second half of 2025.
Your Mid-Year Financial Health Check: Growth, Not Guilt
Think of this like servicing your car. You don’t check the oil because you’ve done something wrong – you do it because regular maintenance prevents bigger problems down the road. Your finances work the same way.
I’ve seen this play out in real life. One friend lived with his parents after university and diligently saved £1,000 every month for a house deposit. Boring? Yes. Effective? Absolutely – he bought his flat within two years. Another friend got engaged last year but hasn’t saved anything for the wedding. Now: maxed-out credit cards, borrowing from family, and his entire year-end bonus will be going to clear the mess. He’ll be fine, I’m sure the date will be great… but it could have been avoided with regular check-ins.
The difference wasn’t income or financial sophistication. It was the simple habit of looking at the numbers regularly, making small adjustments, and carrying on. That’s exactly what we’re doing here.
Speaking of regular check-ins, I’ve just done my own mid-year review. I’d give us a B-minus. We underestimated the cost of running a larger Victorian property when we moved late last year, so our expenses have been higher than planned. We’ve also been furnishing it, and somehow every major purchase became “oh, this is your birthday present” or “wedding anniversary gift” – which hasn’t stopped us planning experiences for the actual dates too, and even then was twice what we would normally budget for each other’s gifts. But we’ve managed to be under budget in other areas: funnily takeaways are cheaper further out of London and we seem to be having them less often – actually surprisingly noticeable. Right now we’re less than 10% over budget, but our look forward suggests probably heading for at least 10% over by year-end. Not perfect, but manageable.
Step 1: Revisit Your 2025 Financial Goals & Aspirations
Before we look at where you are, let’s remember where you planned to go. Dig out those original goals from January – they might be scribbled in a notebook, saved in your phone notes, or just your mental-model financial plan.
Common goals people set include:
- Building a house deposit and if you’re in London – a 10% deposit on a decent flat can be an eye watering £50,000+ these days. Thanks to our caring and understanding parents and grandparents! Not that I’m bitter or anything, no doubt you’ll spend the inheritance your million pound houses afford you too!
- Increasing pension contributions by a set percentage
- Building an emergency fund worth 3-6 months of expenses
- Saving for a holiday, car, or home improvement
- Paying down any outstanding loans or credit card balances
Don’t worry if your goals were vague (“save more money”) or overly ambitious (“become financially independent by Christmas”). Most people’s January intentions are a mix of hope and guesswork. The point isn’t to judge your past self, but to establish a baseline for where you thought you wanted to be.
If you can’t find your original goals anywhere, that’s perfectly fine for your personal finance review. Just jot down what you think you were aiming for – even a rough approximation gives us something to work with.
Step 2: Where Are You Now? Take Stock of Your Numbers
Now for the numbers bit. Don’t panic – we’re not doing forensic accounting here, just getting a clear picture of where things stand.
Net Worth Snapshot: Your Financial Starting Point
Your net worth is simply everything you own minus everything you owe. Add up your savings accounts, ISAs, pension values, and any investments. Then subtract your mortgage, credit card balances, loans, and other outstanding commitments. For example: £25,000 in savings plus £45,000 pension minus £8,000 remaining on a car loan equals £62,000 net worth.
This isn’t about bragging rights. It’s about tracking progress over time. If your net worth has improved since January, you’re moving in the right direction for your financial journey, regardless of the absolute figure. I do this quarterly, I don’t worry about cut-off dates, and I usually get my wife’s numbers a week or two late.
Income and Spending Review
Take a high-level look at your money flow. Are you spending roughly what you expected? Most people find a few surprises here – maybe you’re spending more on groceries than planned, or that gym membership you forgot about is still coming out monthly. Maybe you signed up to Netflix to watch Severance and it’s now just auto-renewing.
Don’t get bogged down in precise categorisation. Just ask: am I living within my means, and are there any obvious leaks I should plug?
Savings and Investment Progress: Are You on Track?
Check your regular savings accounts and investment accounts. Have you been contributing consistently? If you set up a £300 monthly standing order in January, you should have around £1,800 saved by now (accounting for six monthly contributions). Side note: standing orders are just the sort of boring thing I like to implement.
For investments, don’t get too caught up in performance – markets fluctuate. My goodness they fluctuate, if there’s ever a year to demonstrate why short term savings shouldn’t be exposed to market risk it’s this year! Focus instead on whether you’ve maintained regular contributions.
Step 3: Identify the Gaps and the Wins
Time for honest financial assessment – but remember, this is data collection, not a character judgment.
Start with the wins: Maybe you’ve consistently saved £250 monthly when you planned £300 – that’s still £1,500 in the bank that wasn’t there before. Perhaps you haven’t touched your emergency fund, which means it’s doing its job. Or you might have increased your pension contributions and barely noticed the difference to your monthly budget.
Celebrate these properly, raise your can of craft beer or chilled wine, high-five your wife. They prove your system can work and give you confidence for the next six months.
Next, the gaps: Common ones include:
- Saving less than planned (usually the biggest one)
- Lifestyle inflation that crept in unnoticed
- One-off expenses that derailed monthly targets (“it’s just one kitchen gadget…”)
- Goals that turned out to be unrealistic
- The classic “lifestyle reality gap” – where your January budget assumed you’d become a completely different person who never buys coffee or books
Here’s the key: gaps are information, not failures. If you planned to save £400 monthly but only managed £250, you’ve learned something valuable about your actual capacity. That’s not a character flaw – it’s useful data for adjusting your approach.
The goal isn’t perfection; it’s progress you can sustain.
Step 4: Adjust and Re-Strategize for the Next 6 Months
Based on your review, here’s how to set yourself up for a stronger second half of 2025:
Tweak Your Budget
If you’re consistently overspending in certain areas, adjust your budget to reflect reality rather than aspiration. It’s better to plan for £500 monthly groceries and stick to it than to budget £350 and constantly feel like you’re failing.
Similarly, if you’ve found money you didn’t expect (maybe working from home reduced your transport costs), allocate it purposefully rather than letting it disappear into general spending.
Set Up Standing Orders
This is where boring really shines. Set up standing orders for savings and investments so they happen without requiring willpower. If you’ve learned you can reliably save £250 monthly instead of £300, set up the standing order for £250 and forget about it.
Re-evaluate Your Goals
Six months of real-world experience beats any amount of January optimism. If your goals were too ambitious, scale them back to something sustainable. If they were too easy, stretch them slightly.
Maybe that £60,000 house deposit target needs to become £45,000, or perhaps you can increase it because you’ve found more capacity than expected.
Schedule Regular Check-ins
Put recurring “money dates” in your calendar – monthly or quarterly works well. These don’t need to be elaborate sessions, just 30 minutes to review your numbers and make small adjustments.
The key is consistency over intensity. Small, regular course corrections prevent the need for dramatic overhauls later.
The Long-Term View: Patience Over Perfection
Personal finance is a marathon, not a sprint. The most successful people aren’t those who optimise every decision – they’re the ones who stick to simple, sustainable systems over years and decades.
Your mid-year financial health check might reveal that you’re “only” 70% of the way to your savings target, or that your investment returns haven’t been spectacular. That’s normal. What matters is that you’re still in the game, still contributing regularly, and still moving broadly in the right direction.
Consistency beats intensity every time. The person who saves £200 monthly for 20 years will end up far better off than someone who saves £800 monthly for six months then gives up.
Small, boring actions compound into meaningful results. That’s not just true for investments – it’s true for habits, knowledge, and financial confidence too.
Your mid-year financial check-up isn’t just about crunching numbers; it’s about re-aligning with your bigger life goals. By assessing where you are and making sensible adjustments, you ensure your money continues to work for the life you want to live, without the stress of constant optimisation.
Take the time, make the tweaks, and trust the process. What’s one small adjustment you’ll make after your mid-year review?
Next in the Mid-Year Money Check-In series: we’ll dive deeper into how a simple mid-year review can keep you on the right path without overwhelming you.