As the year ends, important financial deadlines are approaching; what you should be aware of

With the New Year comes important deadlines that you might not be aware of, but making those changes before the calendar rolls over to 2025 could be to your benefit.

According to Covered California, signing up for coverage before 11:59pm on December 31st means you could be covered starting New Year's Day and for the rest of 2025.

Open enrollment for Covered California doesn't close until January 31st, but if you wait until that deadline, your coverage won't start until February 1st.

Covered California Executive Director Jessica Altman says the program has seen growth in Riverside County: "We have almost 90,000 residents of Riverside County who are already enrolled, and that's actually a 20% increase in the number of enrollees since 2020.”

"We're really trying hard to make sure that the coverage we offer brings the value and brings the help to our communities that all Californians deserve," Altman continues.

You can enroll or find more information on the Covered California website. Altman says it takes most enrollees 15 to 25 minutes to sign up.

There are also financial deadlines to be considered, such as deadlines for charitable donations you can claim for your taxes this year.

For a lot of changes that require assistance from broker custodians, Dana Crosby, an investment advisor with SC Capital Advisors, says it may be too late. "It's just that a lot of people are waiting. They procrastinate and they're doing all these things at once. And so this is [the custodians'] busiest time of year right now."

But there are some things you can do before 2024 rolls over into 2025. Crosby says you could try tax loss harvesting, which can be done by selling assets for a loss to offset gains that you've made on profitable assets this year. That can all be done before markets close at 1:00 p.m. on December 31st.

Charitable donations made in cash could also still beat the December 31st deadline at 11:59 p.m., but donations made using other methods may be difficult to squeeze in.

"If you were if you wanted to do like a stock donation where it would require the assistance of a broker custodian, it might be too late just because the administrative staff at custodians are super busy," Crosby explains.

And as we look ahead to 2025, Crosby says he's optimistic about what the economy could bring.

"You know, I think there could be a mini correction sometime next year, just principally due to stock valuations. But otherwise, I'm fairly bullish on the prospects for continued economic growth for the U.S. economy."