Spring is a great time to do some decluttering and cleaning. While you’re cleaning the curtains and scrubbing up the floors now might be a good time to clean up your finances too. It won’t take too much of your time, but it will keep your financial life in check. Here are some steps to take for your financial spring cleaning:
Assess your debt situation
Do you have debt? If the answer is yes then now would be a good time to see what progress you are making towards paying it off. If you haven’t made a plan yet, then now is as good a time as any to get started. Find out how much you owe, develop a plan to pay it off, and set up a method where you can track your progress.
Review any recurring bills
It’s amazing how much “price creep” there has been lately. From cell phone charges, to lawn care charges, to your cable bill, now is a great time to checkup on what you’re paying and what you are receiving in return. Carefully check any automatic payments. Do you still want/need/use those things you are paying for monthly? Prune where you need to.
Conduct An Insurance Review
Might as well review your insurance situation. Any medical claims outstanding? Is your life insurance up to date? Have you checked car insurance rates in a while or just stayed with the same insurer because it’s easier? This past year we shopped around for car insurance rates and were amazed at how much better a rate we could obtain by leaving our current insurer. It does pay to shop around.
Tune Up Your Taxes
Most likely you have already filed (or are getting ready to file) your taxes. Since the details are still fresh in your mind now is the time to make plans for next year’s taxes. You want to strike a balance between paying enough so you don’t have to pay a penalty but not paying too much so that you receive a large refund. Just look at what is happening in some states regarding tax refunds. If you received a large refund take the time to see how to adjust your withholding for next year. Did you owe money? Then you will want to see if you can pay more in either through your withholding or through quarterly estimated payments to make sure you don’t have any penalties for next year.
Are there any other items that need “spring cleaning” in your finances?
What I’m reading:
Easy Ways to Save Money on Printer Paper and Ink – Some great ideas on reducing the expense of printer paper and ink. Like David, we always buy our supplies in bulk as much as possible.
Money Hackers Carnival #108- Dare or Truth! hosted at Eliminate The Muda. A wonderful collection of some of the best personal finance articles from the prior week.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I think reviewing recurring bills for spring cleaning, especially utility bills is a must. There’s always companies coming out with new offers (such as prepaid cell phone offers) and other great gadgets to save money on long-distance. I just did a spring cleaning on my landline phone bill. I kept my local package but now use the net to place long-distance calls. The result: over $40/month in savings.
One way to tune up your taxes is to take advantage of some of the free software that’s out there. Determining if you will get a tax refund or not could play a role if you need to make any last minute decisions to offset any unwanted taxes to pay in!
Excellent post!
I regularly review recurring bills and now that you’ve mentioned…I need to asses my debt situation. Thanks for the reminder haha..if I didn’t bump into your article, I still do same old thing, just review my recurring my bills.
Good post and good reminder. I need to especially look over my insurance policies. I reassessed a couple of years ago and saved a bundle on my homeowners. Hopefully, rates have gone down and it will lead to more savings.
I try to do a financial “gut check” at least once every six months. Even for those of us who are fairly financially straight, these things are a good idea. There are always things that pop up in your life that cost money that can be eliminated at a later date. These things can also fall thru the cracks if you don’t take a step back and assess your overall financial picture every few months
Great advice to review bills — there are always ways to cut prices. My favorite is to negotiate with the cable company or look for better cell phone plans with my provider. Which reminds me that summer is when I need to do my annual sweep!