The holiday season isn't just a race to find the perfect gift; it's a hard, immovable deadline for your financial life. The final quarter of the year is your "financial fourth quarter"—a high-stakes sprint to make the smart moves that can save you thousands in taxes and set you up for a more prosperous new year.

But let's be honest: it's a time of high anxiety. Am I saving enough? Am I paying too much in taxes? What am I forgetting? The complexity of it all can lead to the worst possible outcome: doing nothing.

This is not a list of "shoulds" to tackle alone. This is the time to schedule your most important meeting of the year: the one with your financial advisor. Their entire job is to cut through this complexity, to identify the specific strategies that apply to your unique situation, and to ensure you don't leave any "free money" on the table. To get your own checklist started, here are five of the most common and high-impact decisions to discuss.

1. Max Out Your Retirement

This is the big one every single year. Your tax-advantaged retirement accounts are the most powerful wealth-building tool you have, and they have a "use it or lose it" contribution limit.

  • Your 401(k) or 403(b): The deadline for your employee contributions is December 31st. If you haven't hit the maximum contribution for the year, you have a few pay periods left to aggressively increase your deferral. You can't make this up later.
  • Your IRA (Traditional or Roth): While you technically have until the tax-filing deadline next year to contribute, the planning happens now.
  • The "Catch-Up": If you are age 50 or over, don't forget to make your additional "catch-up" contributions, which allow you to save even more.

A financial advisor can run the numbers to see exactly how much you can afford to "lump sum" into these accounts from your final paychecks or your year-end bonus, all without torpedoing your holiday cash flow.

2. Focus on Tax-Loss Harvesting

This is a classic year-end strategy that sounds complex but is simple in principle. Your investment portfolio probably has some "winners" (stocks you could sell for a profit) and some "losers" (stocks that are down). Your advisor's job is to play matchmaker.

How it works: Let's say you sold a stock in May for a $10,000 profit. You will owe capital gains tax on that $10,000. But, you also have another investment in your portfolio that is currently down $8,000.

A smart move is to sell that "loser" stock before December 31st. By "harvesting" that $8,000 loss, you can use it to offset your gain. Now, you only have to pay taxes on a net gain of $2,000.

This is not a DIY project. There is a complex "wash sale" rule that prevents you from selling a stock for a loss and buying it right back. You must wait 30 days, or your loss will be disallowed. This is a move that requires a professional to execute correctly.

3. Prioritize Charitable Giving

The holiday season is the season of generosity, and the IRS provides a tax incentive for it—but only if you complete your donation by December 31st.

But how you give is just as important as what you give.

  • The "Good" Way: Writing a check. You get a tax deduction for the amount you gave, which is great.
  • The "Smart" Way: Donating appreciated stock (a stock that has gone up in value) directly to a charity.

This is a "double tax benefit" that is one of the most powerful moves in financial planning. You get to deduct the full, current market value of the stock (not just what you paid for it). You never have to pay the capital gains tax on its growth.

This is a high-level strategy that an advisor can execute for you, allowing you to give more to your favorite cause for the same out-of-pocket cost.

4. Spend All of Your Flexible Spending Account

This is the most urgent item on the list. If you have a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) for healthcare or dependent care, that money is not yours forever. Most plans have a hard December 31st "use it or lose it" deadline (though some offer a small rollover or a grace period).

That money is yours. You already earned it. Letting it expire is the equivalent of setting cash on fire.

  • Action: Log in to your benefits portal today. Check your balance.
  • Go Spend It: Go buy those new prescription glasses, re-order your 6-month supply of contact lenses, pre-pay for a dental cleaning, or stock up on eligible, over-the-counter medical supplies. Don't let that money vanish.

5. Double-Check Your Taxes

Did you get a massive, $5,000 tax refund last April? That may have felt like a fun windfall, but it wasn't. It was a mistake.

A huge refund means you had too much money withheld from your paychecks all year long. You gave the government an interest-free loan of over $400 every single month—money that you could have been using to pay down debt, invest, or just live on.

The Action: Now is the perfect time to do a "paycheck check-up" for next year. Sit with your advisor, review your W-4 form, and adjust your withholdings. The goal of a smart tax plan is to get your refund as close to $0 as possible. This is the move that gives you an immediate, automatic raise on every paycheck next year.

The end of the year is a hard deadline. These moves can seem complicated, but they are the building blocks of a sound financial future. Don't let the complexity stop you from taking action. This is the perfect time to partner with an expert, create a clear plan, and step into the New Year with confidence.