I love spring! We’ve been fixing up our landscape, scrubbing down the grill, organizing the garage, and washing windows. Maybe you have been giving your house a good spring cleaning and organizing as well. How about your financial life?
Your home is not the only thing that could use some attention right now. This is a great time to complete some financial spring cleaning! Get your financial life in order so you can enjoy the nice weather ahead and have peace of mind.
1. Get That Filing Cabinet Organized!
Where do you start? Read my tips HERE where I provide you with clear instruction and examples on how to purge and file!
2. Make Sure Your Estate Plan Is In Order
Have you checked your financial accounts recently to see if you listed the correct beneficiaries? Do you even know if the great aunt whom you named in your will as your children’s guardian is up for the challenge anymore??
Years can slip away suspiciously fast. When was the last time you made sure your estate plan was still organized and operational? If you haven’t gotten started yet, here are 4 easy steps.
3. Get Your Bills On Auto-Pay!
Auto-pay saves SO much time and even money! Many companies offer a discount if you enroll in automatic payments. Life seems to get very busy during the summer; it could be easy to forget to pay a bill (and get a late fee and interest charge!). Note… I am guilty of letting this happen.
On the next rainy spring day, take some time to set up auto-pay on your bills.
The only bill I haven’t enrolled in auto-pay is my credit card. Reason being, I want to be sure I am mindful of what I am spending and checking for fraudulent activity. I check my activity each month to ensure the spending was all legitimate. It also reminds me of any frivolous purchases I conveniently “forgot” about. 😉
4. Make Sure Your Insurance Policies Aren’t Out-of-Date
When was the last time you looked at your homeowner’s insurance policy? Do you know how much it covers? If you have made home improvements, or your property value has increased significantly, you might want to have your home reappraised.
Same thing with your life insurance situation! If you have had 2 more kids since the last time you reviewed your life insurance policies, it is VERY possible you might be underinsured and not even know it. Read my guide on figuring out how much life insurance you need HERE.
Maybe you have also added a dog, a swimming pool, or a trampoline to your life. If that’s the case, you better check and make sure you have umbrella liability insurance!
5) Make A Plan To Rebalance Your Portfolio
When was the last time you reviewed your investment portfolio? Do you still have the same stock to bond ratio that you intended when you opened your account(s)?
Some of your investments have likely performed very well while some have lagged.
Now is a great time to at least plan for getting your investments back in balance. That means SELLING what has done well and BUYING in areas that have lagged.
I realize you might still need some convincing… read my article on Why You MUST Sell Your Favorite Stocks. It’s also a great time to check in and make sure your risk tolerance is the same!
If you need some more help with this, check out Hixon Zuercher Captial Management!
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You know you always feel better and more at peace after a good spring cleaning in your financial life! Tackle just one of these and see how it goes. Maybe you will be inspired and motivated to do more! Even if you complete just one task, write me a message, and tell me how it went. I want to hear about it!
