A financial cleanse to close out your year? Here's how to know if it's right for you

As 2023 gradually approaches its end, you may be looking back at some of the goals you set at the beginning of the year — and that includes taking a close look at how your finances played out.

One way to accomplish this is by doing a financial cleanse. A financial cleanse is a check-in on your money to help you see where you stand today, how you got there and what you can do the rest of the year to improve. Below, CNBC Select explains further what a financial cleanse entails, plus we cover how you can begin and our take on whether it's really worth it.

• What does a financial cleanse entail?
• How to begin?
• Is a financial cleanse worth it?
• Bottom line

A financial cleanse involves a period of financial evaluation, budgeting and mindful spending to help you reset your financial habits and make healthier money choices.

It's not always easy to sit down and face your finances, but if you have any financial goals or burdens looming over you that you have no clue how to tackle, there's a good chance that a financial cleanse could be just what you need.

Some of these scenarios could look like:

• You haven't figured out a debt payoff plan
• You don't know where your money's going
• You are without an emergency fund

Figuring out each of these hurdles is not only essential to managing your money well, but they're of timely importance. The sooner you can address things like debt payoff, your spending and your saving, the more money you'll literally have.

For example, if you're carrying a credit card balance month to month, the interest that's accruing is adding tens, if not hundreds, of dollars to what you owe. Figuring out a debt payoff plan ASAP is crucial to saving you money. Balance transfer credit cards like the Wells Fargo Reflect® Card and the Citi Simplicity® Card both offer long introductory APR periods with a $0 annual fee.

With interest rates high, now is also the perfect time to put whatever amount of cash you can into a high-yield savings account, which is accessible enough to act as an emergency fund:

How you decide to go about a financial cleanse is completely up to you. Overall, you want to have certain financial goals in mind and make sure all your finances are organized. But knowing just when and where to start is usually the toughest part. Luckily, there are various models you can follow to help you get started and guide you through the process.

Ashley Feinstein Gerstley, a CFP®, suggests in her book "The 30-Day Money Cleanse" that people tackle a different challenge each week.

"I found the weekly structure really helpful because people are really busy," Gerstley tells CNBC Select. "I'm a big proponent of breaking up actions into steps that feel manageable so that we take it and get to the end."

With Gerstley's financial cleanse method, each week is designated to a particular goal:

• Week one: Track your spending and cut out purchases you may deem frivolous
• Week two: Take a close look at your spending and see what makes you happy
• Week three: Ensure that what you're putting your money toward are things that you value
• Week four: Build a money dream team of people who can help you in your process and also hold you accountable

Throughout her book, Gerstley also shares various inspirational quotes and helpful tips to get you through each week. Knowing that there are people who begin the cleanse and stop in between, she encourages them to continue where they left off even if it's not done perfectly.

What we like about the financial cleanse is that it's an option and an opportunity to better your finances. Instead of waiting to figure out the "perfect" way to fix your finances, the cleanse offers steps to ease into bettering your money immediately without having to really commit all the way if you find it's not helpful for you.

Marcus Holzberg, a CFP at Holzberg Wealth Management, explains that being focused on finding the perfect strategy can inhibit us from taking the first step. He encourages people to try the financial cleanse and if it doesn't work out, then move on.

"There's a misconception that wealth is a once-in-a-lifetime decision or transformation that you make," Holzberg says. "It's just a product of recurring habits compounded over long periods of time."

A financial cleanse may be good for anyone, but especially if you're approaching the end of the year and finding that you could use better money management. For a period of time, you'd dedicate some effort toward organizing your finances, budgeting and mindful spending. The worst-case scenario is you try and find it doesn't work for you. Whether you prefer approaching the cleanse daily over a 30-day period or on a weekly basis, the key is taking it step by step.

At CNBC Select, we work with experts who have specialized knowledge and authority based on relevant training and/or experience. For this story, we interviewed Ashley Feinstein Gerstley, a certified financial planner and author of "The 30-Day Money Cleanse," and Marcus Holzberg, a certified financial planner at Holzberg Wealth Management.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every personal finance article is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of personal finance products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics. See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best credit cards and savings accounts.

Catch up on CNBC Select's in-depth coverage of credit cards, banking and money, and follow us on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay up to date.