Summer is not when people blow up their finances. Nobody makes a catastrophic money decision at the lake.
What happens instead is drift. The automatic transfer that got paused for vacation and never turned back on. The trip charged to the wrong account. The statements nobody opened. Michael Euston and Jamie Olson counted down the five money habits that slip every summer, and the number one drift is one you are actually allowed to enjoy.
5. The Autopilot Stops
We tell clients to automate whatever they can: credit card payments, the mortgage, retirement contributions. Then vacation comes up, cash gets tight, and something gets paused.
Pausing it is not the problem. Forgetting to restart it is. Pull up your automatic transfers and confirm they are running the way you set them up. It takes five minutes and it is the easiest thing on this list.
4. The Wrong Account
Where did the vacation money actually come from?
If it came out of an IRA or a brokerage account, you may have realized capital gains you have not accounted for. If it went on a credit card, that balance may still be sitting there in September. Neither is a disaster. Both are worth knowing about now rather than at tax time.
Jamie's version of this: the people still paying their own college loans while writing the first tuition check for their kid. Obligations stack up quietly. Get ahead of them.
3. The Unopened Statement
Kids are home, schedules are scrambled, and nobody is opening mail in July.
That is fine right up until something needs attention. A statement, a notice, a change to an account. Take an hour and go through what has piled up since Memorial Day. Enjoying your summer and staying on top of your accounts are not mutually exclusive.
2. The Missed Deadline
The IRS does not take summer off.
If you make estimated quarterly tax payments, the Q2 payment was due June 15 and the next one is due September 15. Medicare enrollment opens October 15. Workplace retirement plan contributions need to be in by December 31.
There is also the category that is not technically a deadline but behaves like one. Roth conversions, gifting, and other year-end planning moves are far easier to execute in August than in the third week of December. Looking at those now rather than later is worth the calendar time.
1. The Good Drift
Here is the one that is allowed.
You spent a little more on vacation than you planned. You were outside with your family instead of inside reviewing statements. If you budgeted for it and the plan absorbs it, that is not a failure. That is the plan working. Money is a vehicle for a life, and summer is when a lot of that life happens.
The distinction that matters is between drift you chose and drift you did not notice. The first one is fine. The second one is what we are trying to catch before fall.
And if you are working with an advisor, part of this is already handled. Accounts get monitored and rebalanced whether or not you are checking them in August. That is the point of having someone whose job is to watch the drift so you do not have to.
The Pre-Labor Day Checklist
Before Labor Day, run through five things: confirm your automatic transfers restarted, check which account funded your summer spending, open the mail, put September 15, October 15, and December 31 on your calendar, and decide honestly whether your summer drift was the good kind.
Happy summer. Go enjoy it.
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