When it comes to retirement savings, surveys often point to a big magic number you will need to have set aside to live well.

Yet retirement experts say to focus on another number — your personal savings rate — to make sure you achieve your retirement savings goals.

“Early in the year is an ideal time to reassess your retirement contributions and overall savings strategy because you can take advantage of any employer matches, adjust your monthly budget accordingly and stay ahead of potential market shifts,” said Douglas Boneparth, a certified financial planner and president and founder of Bone Fide Wealth, a wealth management firm based in New York City.

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What’s more, increasing your retirement savings now gives your money more time to compound — earning interest on both your contributions and previously earned interest. That can “significantly impact your nest egg over the long term,” said Boneparth, who is also a member of the CNBC FA Council.

If you have a 401(k) plan through your employer, now is a great time to look at your contribution rate, according to Mike Shamrell, vice president of thought leadership at Fidelity.

Most importantly, see how your savings rate corresponds to what your employer offers in terms of a company match, he said.

“It’s the closest thing a lot of people get to free money,” Shamrell said.

Oftentimes, companies have a match formula. If you’re not clear on how much you need to contribute to get the full match, contact your human resources department or 401(k) provider, Shamrell said.

Fidelity recommends saving at least 15% of your pre-tax income annually, including your contributions and money from your employer.

If you’re not quite there — or you want to save even more — even just a 1% increase in your deferral rate can make a big difference to your retirement savings over time, Shamrell said.

“It may not have the significant impact on your take-home pay that you that you may be envisioning,” Shamrell said.

The same contribution limits apply for 2025, though savers have additional time — up to April 15, 2026 — to make those contributions.

Savers may be able to deduct those IRA contributions, depending on their income.

If you’re worried about picking the wrong investment, you can instead opt for target date, asset allocation or balanced funds, which help decide how your funds are allotted for you, according to Marguerita Cheng, a certified financial planner and CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Also be sure to consider to your risk capacity — the amount of risk you can afford — as well as risk tolerance — the amount of risk you’re willing to take, said Cheng, who is also a member of the CNBC FA Council.

Identifying those personal limits ahead of time can help you stay the course during market turbulence, she said. Investors who bail during the market’s worst days may miss the best days, which often closely follow, research finds.

If you’ve had any major recent life events — gotten married, bought a house or had a baby, for example — you may also want to check that your allocations still correspond to your long-term plans, Shamrell said.

Inheriting an individual retirement account is a windfall for many investors.

However, a lesser-known change for 2025 could trigger a costly surprise penalty, financial experts say.

Starting in 2025, certain heirs with inherited IRAs must take yearly required withdrawals while emptying accounts over 10 years, known as the “10-year rule.”   

“The big change [for 2025] is the IRS is enforcing penalties for missed required distributions,” said certified financial planner Judson Meinhart, director of financial planning at Modera Wealth Management in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

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There’s a 25% penalty for missing a required minimum distribution, or RMD, from an inherited IRA. But it’s possible to reduce the fee if your RMD is “timely corrected” within two years, according to the IRS.  

Here are the key things to know about the inherited IRA change. 

Before the Secure Act of 2019, heirs could withdraw funds from inherited IRAs over their lifetime, which helped reduce yearly income taxes.

Since 2020, certain inherited accounts have been subject to the “10-year rule,” meaning heirs must deplete inherited IRAs by the 10th year after the original account owner’s death.  

After years of waived penalties for missed RMDs from inherited IRAs, the IRS in July finalized guidance. Starting in 2025, certain beneficiaries must take yearly withdrawals during the 10-year window or they’ll face a penalty for missed RMDs.

The rule applies to heirs who are not a spouse, minor child, disabled, chronically ill or certain trusts — and the yearly withdrawals apply if the original IRA owner had reached their RMD age before death.

One group who could be impacted are adult children who inherited IRAs from their parents, according to CFP Edward Jastrem, chief planning officer at Heritage Financial Services in Westwood, Massachusetts.

But the rules have become a “spiderweb mess of decision-making,” he said.

For example, boosting adjusted gross income can impact things like Medicare Part B and Part D premiums, eligibility for the premium tax credit for Marketplace health insurance and more. 

Of course, timing inherited IRA withdrawals depends on your complete tax situation, including multi-year projections of your adjusted gross income, Meinhart said.

TikTok’s fate is still uncertain.

While the Supreme Court last week upheld the law that effectively bans TikTok from the U.S., one of Trump’s first actions as president was an executive order to pause the ban for 75 days, starting Jan. 20.

The app’s future may shift how young adults learn about personal finance. Gen Zers, or those born between 1997 and 2012, often rely on TikTok’s financial community, or #FinTok, as a source of information about money.

A 2024 report by the CFA Institute found that the generation is more likely than older generations to engage with “finfluencer” — or financial influencer — content on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, in part because they have less access to professional financial advisors and a preference for obtaining information online.

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Americans last year turned to TikTok for financial advice on topics including budgeting (25%), investing (24%), credit cards and credit scores (33%), according to a recent report by Chime, a financial technology company.

The site polled 2,000 U.S. adults from November 1 to 16. It also analyzed user engagement patterns on TikTok compared with data from platforms like Google Trends and Exploding Topics, which track popularity and growth of trends over time.

Leading up to the law’s initial Jan. 19 deadline for TikTok, finfluencers had been directing their followers to other platforms like Instagram and YouTube. Individuals also downloaded social media apps like RedNote as TikTok substitutes.

But whatever ends up happening with TikTok, finfluencers are here to stay. Here’s how to vet their advice.

Some viral TikTok trends are worth applying to your finances in 2025, like “loud budgeting,” experts say. The trend encourages consumers to take control of their finances and be vocal about making money-conscious decisions rather than overspending.

Essentially, “loud budgeting is just financial boundaries,” financial therapist Lindsay Bryan-Podvin, author of “The Financial Anxiety Solution” and founder of Mind Money Balance.

A short-term, no-spend challenge can also be an opportunity to do a “gut check on where you’re spending and where you’re saving,” Bryan-Podvin said.

“These trends are worth adopting if you verify the underlying strategies [… and] modify them to align with your personal financial goals and risk tolerance,” said Boneparth, who is a member of the CNBC Financial Advisor Council.

But a lot of incorrect or risky advice appears on social media, too. About 27% of social media users believed misleading financial advice or misinformation on social media, according to Edelman Financial Engines. About 42% of surveyed adults in their 30s have fallen prey to bad financial advice in social platforms, and 2 in 10 have been affected more than once, the report found.

Edelman polled 3,008 adults of ages 30 and up from June 12 to July 2024. The total sample included 1,500 respondents between ages 45 and 70 with household assets between $500 and $3 million.

Individuals who are affected by risky or incorrect advice they took from a social media creator can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to Amy Miller, an accredited financial counselor and manager of America Saves, a campaign managed by the Consumer Federation of America.

Otherwise, here are three key steps to consider: 

In most instances, you might not find experienced financial advisors on TikTok like on other social platforms, according to Winnie Sun, co-founder and managing director of Irvine, California-based Sun Group Wealth Partners.

Much of it has to do with compliance rules. In order for financial planners to maintain their licensing, they must adhere to certain guidelines on what information they’re allowed to share. It’s easier to track and review content posted on some platforms — TikTok isn’t one of them.

“I’m not allowed to share information on TikTok,” said Sun, who is also a CNBC FA Council member.

You can typically find licensed financial professionals actively sharing content on platforms like LinkedIn, YouTube and X, she said.

It’s also “absolutely crucial” to develop a basic level of financial literacy before turning to social media for advice, said SoFi’s Walsh.

Look for online courses, join financial forums and subscribe to legitimate publications to gain financial literacy, experts say. Organizations like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also provide free educational resources.

You can enter the content creator’s name on BrokerCheck to see if they have any credentials. If they are accredited, find out if they have any disclosures, a red flag which means they’ve gotten into trouble in the past.