5 Signs You Need a Financial Tune-Up—and How To Start

Just as your car needs routine maintenance to continue running smoothly, your finances require regular tune-ups to stay on track. A proper tune-up involves assessing your current financial position and trajectory, then aligning your daily habits with an updated set of goals.

Let’s explore a few of the most common signs that your finances are overdue for some maintenance and discuss what steps you should take to put things back in order.

Signs You Need a Financial Tune-Up

1. Frequent Financial Emergencies

One of the clearest signs your finances could use some attention is that you’re constantly scrambling to deal with unexpected expenses. While the occasional surprise may be inevitable, frequent emergencies can indicate insufficient preparation.

For example, if you’re struggling to build financial momentum because of unforeseen auto repairs, home maintenance, or medical services for your pets, you probably need to make some changes before you start accumulating debt.

2. Increasing Debt Levels

If there’s one clear sign your finances need attention, it’s that your debts are steadily rising. When you find yourself carrying over credit card balances or struggling to keep up with your auto loan payments, it’s probably time to make some changes—sooner rather than later.

Left unchecked, debt can erode your discretionary spending, limit your ability to save, and contribute to financial anxiety. Eventually, you can get in so deep it’s no longer possible to escape without drastic and costly tactics, like debt settlement or bankruptcy.

3. Irregular Savings Habits

All good financial plans are built on a foundation of consistent monthly savings. You need a regular cash surplus to work toward your goals, whether that’s paying off debt, saving for retirement, or simply affording a vacation.

If your monthly savings fluctuate wildly or even disappear in certain months, it could be a sign that you need to tighten up your budget. Irregular savings patterns often reflect inconsistent spending habits or undefined financial priorities.

4. Living Paycheck to Paycheck

Living paycheck to paycheck means you always need your next paycheck to meet your upcoming financial obligations. This may be fairly common, potentially describing as many as 57% of Americans, but it still leaves you highly vulnerable.

Any additional costs could send you into debt, and a sudden loss of income would render you entirely unable to pay your bills. That’s unsustainable by definition, making it a sure sign that adjustments are necessary to get your finances on track.

5. Lack of Financial Goals

Without tangible goals to guide your efforts, finances can feel like a problem with no clear solution. Not only is that stressful, but it can also contribute to a lack of motivation that results in poor financial decisions, like overspending or failing to invest.

If you don’t have clear financial objectives in mind, you may need to reassess your financial trajectory. Having strategic short- and long-term goals will help you track your progress and stay disciplined.

5 Steps To Start Your Financial Tune-Up

1. Assess Your Current Financial Situation

If you’ve realized your finances need fixing, start by listing your monthly income sources and tracking your spending for at least a few months. This should give you enough data to calculate an average monthly cost figure that accounts for fluctuations.

After mapping out your income and expenses, make a list of all your assets, including any cash savings, investments, and retirement accounts. Then do the same with your debts, such as your credit cards, student loans, and auto loans. Make sure to note each one’s outstanding balance, interest rate, and minimum payment.

2. Set Clear Financial Goals

With a clear understanding of your income, expenses, assets, and debts, you’re well-equipped to set effective financial goals. One of the most reliable ways to structure them is to use the SMART framework, which says your goals should be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

Typically, you should have a mix of short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals. For example, a SMART short-term goal might be to save $10,000 for a down payment on a house within 12 months. Meanwhile, a SMART long-term goal might be to put 20% of your annual income into your 401(k) so you can retire comfortably in 30 years.

3. Create a Budget Plan

Once you’ve defined your goals, the next step is to create a practical plan for achieving them. Boosting your income isn’t always feasible, so the most effective way to make progress is often by refining your budget plan.

This is where tracking your expenses comes in handy. For example, one popular strategy is to categorize each of your costs as a need or a want, then adjust until 50% of your after-tax income goes to necessary expenses, 30% to discretionary spending, and 20% to savings. Known as the 50/30/20 approach to budgeting, this ensures 20% of your income is always going toward your financial goals.

Alternatively, you can create a more personalized budget based on your SMART goals, especially if you already have a spending plan in place.

For example, say you want to pay off a $5,000 credit card balance in the next eight months, which requires you to set aside roughly $675 per month. To achieve that, you might cut $500 from various discretionary expenses and reallocate $175 of your current monthly savings from investments to debt.

4. Build an Emergency Fund

An emergency fund can be one of your most powerful tools for financial stability, insulating you from the unexpected, whether that’s a surprise expense, layoff, or global pandemic. Even if you never use it, just having one can provide peace of mind.

Typically, experts recommend that you keep between three and six months of living expenses in your emergency fund. For example, if you typically spend $3,000 per month, you might set aside anywhere from $9,000 to $18,000.

However, that’s just a rule of thumb, and you may want to adjust your target depending on your income stability, lifestyle, and risk tolerance. For example, if you’re self-employed with multiple dependents, you might aim to hold between six months and a year’s worth of expenses.

5. Reduce and Manage Debt

Paying off debt is one of the most common financial goals for Americans in 2025, with roughly 19% of consumers saying it’s their top priority. If you’re one of them, refer back to your list of credit accounts and find the one with the highest interest rate.

Generally, the most efficient way to pay down your debts is to focus your repayment efforts on that account while making minimum payments on all the others. This is known as the avalanche method, and it should result in the lowest possible finance charges.

Debt consolidation can be another highly effective strategy, especially if you have multiple high-interest accounts. It involves rolling your debts over into a new loan or credit card with a lower interest rate, such as a personal loan or 0% APR balance transfer card. This simplifies your payments and potentially helps you reduce your finance charges, though you have to watch out for origination and balance transfer fees.

Whatever strategy you use, avoid accumulating more debt during repayment, as that can undermine your efforts. Ideally, you should also maintain your budget after becoming debt-free—reallocating your monthly cash surplus to savings and investments—to prevent the cycle from repeating.

The Bottom Line

Keeping your finances on track requires regular check-ins and proactive planning. If you notice warning signs, like rising debt or inconsistent savings, act quickly before those relatively small issues grow into bigger problems.

Start by taking stock of your finances and setting new goals using a framework like SMART. From there, adjust your budget and daily habits to realign with what you want to achieve, whether that’s building up savings, paying down debt, or both.