A new year often feels like a fresh notebook, clean pages, new possibilities, and plenty of motivation to make positive changes. January is when many people sit down to set personal goals, and while health-related resolutions are often top of mind, your financial health deserves the same level of attention. Just like an annual physical helps you stay on track with your well-being, a financial checkup can give you clarity, direction, and renewed confidence in your money management.

K‑State Extension offers a practical and easy-to-use resource titled How Are You Doing? A Financial Checkup, which walks individuals and families step-by-step through evaluating their current financial situation. The publication is available online through the K‑State Extension bookstore, or printed copies can also be picked up at your local Extension office.

A financial checkup is simply a structured way to take stock of where you are and where you want to go. There’s no universal formula for financial success; every household faces different needs, priorities, and challenges. But having a clear picture of your finances can help you identify what’s working, what needs attention, and what steps will move you closer to your goals.

One of the first tools in the publication is the Financial Fitness Quiz, a short but meaningful self-assessment designed to help you reflect on important parts of your financial life, scoring your responses to give you a better understanding of strengths and areas where habit improvements could happen, such as:

• Financial Management: Do you keep accurate records, use a checking account to pay bills, or follow a budget or spending plan?
• Saving and Investing: Are you building an emergency fund, saving regularly for long-term goals, or investing for retirement?
• Insurance & Estate Planning: Do you have the insurance coverage you need? Is your will or estate plan up to date?

The publication goes a step further by guiding you through practical tasks such as creating a net worth statement, a simple calculation of what you own (assets) minus what you owe (debts). Many people find this eye-opening, and it often serves as a motivational starting point for reducing debt or increasing savings. You’ll also find tips for setting clear, realistic financial goals and building a spending plan that reflects your priorities rather than simply tracking where money went in the past.

As part of a complete financial review, the checkup encourages you to look over your taxes, obtain and examine your credit reports, review insurance policies, and evaluate retirement accounts and other investments. These periodic reviews help ensure your financial decisions remain aligned with the changes in your family, job, income, or long-term plans.

Start the year with clarity and confidence. Your future self will be grateful for the steps you take today.

For more information, please contact Community Vitality Agent Amanda Clasen at any Southwind District office or at [email protected].

What do we mean by eating “real food”?

 Do you ever glance in someone’s grocery cart and see all processed, easy-to-warm-up box meals, chips, sodas, and such, and wonder how healthy they are? What does your own shopping cart look like? Do you buy ingredients to make meals? You may have seen in the news recently that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Agriculture released their new dietary guidelines for the next five years.

These new guidelines place a heavy emphasis on eating real, whole foods and encourage individuals to increase the nutrient-dense foods they consume, while reducing heavily processed foods. The new guidelines do retain many of the previous recommendations, but it is important to understand the key differences between them. The hope is that these guidelines will help Americans make informed nutrition decisions for themselves and their families for the next five years.

Key Takeaways from the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans:

 Build most meals around whole foods with limited ingredients.

• Consume a variety of protein foods from animal and plant sources.
• When cooking, focus on baking or grilling rather than deep-frying.
• Incorporate fiber rich foods such as beans, lentils, and other legumes.
• Avoid highly processed foods that contain many ingredients such as chips, cookies, candies, and sodas. When consuming processed foods, choose those with shorter ingredient lists.
• Pay attention to portion sizes, especially for foods higher in calories.

Eating real food means choosing foods with a few ingredients without added sugars, industrial oil, artificial flavors, or preservatives. Did you know there is such a thing as a “healthy fat”? Examples would include meat, seafood, dairy, nuts, olives, and avocados. It’s also recommended to avoid trans fat oils such as canola, and to use oils such as olive, avocado, peanut, or safflower oil.

Understanding changes in dietary guidelines can be overwhelming and confusing. Research is always happening, and we are continuing to learn more about foods and what they do for and to our bodies. The first step in taking charge of your health is becoming more informed. Focusing more on protein and vegetables can support muscle health, metabolic function, gut health, and stable energy while naturally phasing out of eating highly processed foods.

You may have heard of the MyPlate Eating Plan of one fourth each of the plate for vegetables, fruit, protein, and grains. This has been replaced by an “upside down pyramid” which recommends 3 servings of vegetables, 2 servings of fruit, 2-4 servings of whole grains, and 1.2-1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day (approximately 5-7 ounces per day).

Instead of the MyPlate diagram of the past, the recommended visual is the Healthy Eating Plate from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, which emphasizes consuming more protein and vegetables:

For more information, visit realfood.gov, or contact Sandy Haggard, Nutrition, Food Safety, and Health Agent, Southwind District at [email protected] or by calling 620.365.2242.