Wanderer finished by end of year (5)
I believe the answer is:
rover
'wanderer' is the definition.
(I know that wanderer can be written as rover)
'finished by end of year' is the wordplay.
'finished' becomes 'over' (over can mean finished or ended).
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'end of' indicates one should take the final letters.
The final letter of 'year' is 'r'.
'over' after 'r' is 'ROVER'.
(Other definitions for rover that I've seen before include "Nomad" , "Wanderer, rolling stone" , "A vagrant" , "Wanderer, traveller" , "one in Bristol, one in Doncaster, perhaps" .)