Money Mondays: Spring Cleaning Your Finances

Black America Web Featured Video

In many parts of the country, it’s finally starting to feel like spring! And while many people think of this time of year as the right time to spruce up their homes, it can also be the right time to do some spring cleaning on your finances!

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE FIRST STEPS WE SHOULD TAKE IF WE WANT TO START GETTING OUR FINANCIAL HOUSE IN ORDER THIS SPRING?

Well, the first thing you’ll want to make sure that you do is get organized! Tax time usually sheds some light on just how unorganized you might be when it comes to your finances.

A few ways to become more organized are:

Find Your Money! – Do you know where all of your money is? Did you leave a 401k at your old job? Forget to transfer an account when you moved to another city?
Catalog Physical Items – Make a list and take pictures of your valuable property in case the items are stolen or destroyed.
Clear the Clutter – Locate and save important documents, shred unneeded documents, get eStatements from bank, download and save, BACK UP your hard drive.
Change Your Passwords – It seems like every week there is another major data breach! There will probably be more. Keep the hackers off your trail by changing your passwords every few months.

OK, SO ONCE WE’VE GOTTEN A BIT MORE ORGANIZED, WHAT SHOULD WE DO NEXT?

Next up, you’ll want to take a look at some of the very important pieces of your financial life to see if there are some items that you need to tidy up.

Some of the things you’ll want to do are:

Check Your Credit Report – Use CreditKarma.com and check for any mistakes. Also check interest rates on your credit cards and loans to see if anything has changed.
Update Your Will, Power of Attorney, etc. – Ask yourself, what if something happened to me today
Review Life Insurance – Do you have enough coverage? Can you get it cheaper?
Analyze Current Portfolio – Is your asset allocation still appropriate?
Plan for 2018 Taxes – If you plan throughout the year, tax time won’t be such a pain next year. For example: Make sure your withholding is correct at work.

OK, SO WE’RE MORE ORGANIZED AND WE’VE GOT OUR DOCUMENTS IN ORDER. IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD DO WHILE WE’RE IN THE MOOD FOR SPRING CLEANING?

Absolutely, and I have a full “Financial Spring Cleaning Checklist” that everyone can download for free on my website at robwilson.tv/springcleaning

But beyond that, I truly think that this is a great time to take a step back and “smell the roses” so to speak.

You should really use this time to:

Clear Your Head – Are you absolutely crystal clear about what you want for your life and how your finances can help you obtain it?

Review/Revise Your Goals – Are you better off than last year? The year is 25% over, are you making progress on your New Year’s resolution? What can you do better?

Take Baby Steps – Rather than getting overwhelmed by trying to change everything at once, pick one or two areas where you want to get better financially and get to work on those.