Why You Should Review Your Passwords and Subscriptions Once a Year

None of the individual habits in this checkup are complicated. What makes them effective is doing them together, once a year, rather than never doing them at all because no single one feels urgent enough on its own.

Why yearly, specifically

Monthly feels excessive for most of this, and "whenever I think of it" tends to mean never. A fixed annual date is frequent enough to catch problems before they become expensive or risky, and infrequent enough to actually stick as a habit rather than becoming one more thing to feel behind on.

Subscriptions

Review the last three months of bank and card statements for recurring charges you no longer recognize or use.

Check app store subscription pages for anything that's quietly renewed since last year.

Cancel anything you can't remember using in the past six months.

Passwords

Check your password manager for any weak or reused passwords it may have flagged over the year.

Update the password on any account holding financial or highly personal information if it hasn't changed in several years.

Confirm 2FA backup codes are current and stored somewhere you can actually find them.

Access and accounts

Check which apps and services have "Sign in with Google/Apple/Facebook" access to your account, and remove anything you no longer use.

Confirm your legacy or emergency contact settings are still set to the right person.

Delete accounts you're confident you'll never use again.

Make it stick to a date you'll remember

Tying this review to something already fixed in your calendar — a birthday, New Year's, tax season — makes it far more likely to actually happen every year, compared to relying on remembering an arbitrary date on its own.

Free Tools

Make next year's review even faster

The Digital Declutter Checklist and Digital Assets Inheritance Planner both save your progress, so each year's review builds on the last instead of starting from scratch.

Open the free checklist Open the inheritance planner

Common questions

Is once a year actually often enough?

For most people, yes. The goal isn't constant vigilance — it's catching things before they compound into a bigger problem. A single thorough annual pass tends to catch the majority of what accumulates, without requiring ongoing effort throughout the year.

What time of year is best for this kind of review?

Tying it to something memorable — a birthday, the start of a new year, or a specific recurring date — makes it easier to remember than trying to recall an arbitrary date months later. The specific timing matters less than picking one and sticking to it.

Should this replace more frequent subscription checks?

Not necessarily. A yearly review is a good baseline safety net, but checking bank statements more frequently, such as monthly, catches issues faster and is worth doing in addition to, not instead of, an annual deeper review.

How long does an annual review actually take?

After the first year, when you're mostly maintaining rather than starting from scratch, most people can get through a full review in under an hour.

This article is for general informational purposes only and reflects a general routine rather than a guarantee of specific results, which will vary based on your individual accounts and habits.