Financial To Do List

[jeffrey]

There are a lot of personal finance things you need to do on an ongoing basis and I have heard from a number of people that they often forget to do these in a timely manner. I want to make a master list of all the things you need to do to keep your finances tuned up over the year. Please list those things and I will compile them into a master list in this first post. This is the information I need (if appropriate)

1. What needs to be done
2. How often (weekly, monthly, yearly, etc)
3. Is there a particular time of the year it should be done.

For example, you should order your credit report from annualcreditreport.com three times a year (one from each company) spread out over the year (Jan, May, September). Hopefully we can make a comprehensive list to help everyone remember what needs to be done when.

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Financial To Do List

Weekly

• Pay bills, or schedule bills for payment using on-line bill pay

Monthly

• Balance Checkbook

• Allocate your income into your budget categories

Quarterly

• Order free credit report from www.annualcreditreport.com staggering the reports every 4 months (Jan, May, September).

• Pay estimated taxes (due Jan 15, April 15, June 15, Sept 15)

Yearly

• Rebalance portfolio

• Update will

• Check insurance policy limits

• Video tape important belongings in house

• Stay aware of open enrollment in various benefits through your work (yearly, at my work, could be different for some).

• Do a comprehensive review of financial plan, with spouse and/or CFP, if applicable

• Check for tax deductions that can be gained (October, November)

• Make sure health tax free spending account money has been used

• Decide whether to make property tax payment in Dec or Jan

Every Few Years

• Update will and other estate documents (eveunless you move to another state or life circumstances change)

[Scanner]

ewwwww. Good topic.

SOmething on my "to-do" list is to consolidate some of my small accounts into teh bigger ones (for college). I just keep putting it off. I also want to change banks and open up a Disney credit card.

But the stuff that should be done. . .

1. Rebalance portfolio
2. Update will
3. Check ins. policy limits
4. Video tape important belongings in house
5. Evaluate bills if you couldn't extract more savings (I changed auto ins. co.'s and switched phone plans and saved a lot)

I'm sure there's more - hopefully that will get you started.

[Deanie]

Great Idea!! I can't think of anything now, but will post when I do

[anonymous_saver]

Balance checkbook (daily).

Stay aware of open enrollment in various benefits through your work (yearly, at my work, could be different for some).

[scfr]

Pay bills, or schedule bills for payment using on-line bill pay (weekly)

Pay estimated taxes (due Jan 15, April 15, June 15, Sept 15)

Do a comprehensive review of financial plan, with spouse and/or CFP, if applicable (annually)

Update will and other estate documents (every 5 years, or if you move to another state or life circumstances change)

[cptacek]

Yearly, around October or November, look at your tax deductions and see if there is anything you could do in the next two months to improve your tax situation. If you have a business, can you buy some inventory before the end of the year that you otherwise would have bought in January? If you own a home, decide if you want to pay your property tax in December or January.

Also, at the same time, check the balance of your Health Savings Account and determine if there are funds in there that need to be used before the end of the year. If so, make a plan to use it.

Allocate your income into your budget categories. (Timing is personal choice, maybe depending on your pay schedule, or weekly, or monthly)

[disneysteve]

Balance checkbook (daily).

I agree with balancing the checkbook, but why would you possibly waste time doing this daily? I balance mine monthly when my statement comes.

[jeffrey]

updated

[DayByDay]

I agree with balancing the checkbook, but why would you possibly waste time doing this daily? I balance mine monthly when my statement comes.

In my case, it's not a waste of time because DH doesn't always let me know when he has taken money out of the account. I'm always asking him for receipts, but he often loses them. So it's important for me to go online and balance the checkbook every day when I know the funds are low. At the least, I balance it about every 5-7 days. He gets paid irregularly, so that makes it tougher to keep a fairly constant balance in the account.

[cptacek]

Go through your files and shred any documents you don't need.
- Quarterly for investments (that have quarterly reports)
- paystubs (at the end of the year, just keep the last one)
- get rid of old home owners or car insurance policies if you have switched companies

[anonymous_saver]

I agree with balancing the checkbook, but why would you possibly waste time doing this daily? I balance mine monthly when my statement comes.

I do not consider this a waste of time at all! I think it is extremely beneficial. At any one time, I could tell you (within $20 or so) what my balance is in my checkbook.

I think waiting to do it monthly would not work for many people as some could get in situation where they don't have a clue of how much money is left in their checkbook.

I have never personally had a problem with not having enough money in my checkbook and I think the main reason is that I check the balance frequently.

[boefixepa]

I think something about goals or target amounts needs to be evaluated once in a while.

At least once a year I review my spending categories to see if budget amounts need to be adjested. Am I setting too much aside each month for my self-balanced electrial/gas/water/phone bills.

Are there changes I know will be happening in the next year that I need to make changes on. IE if I am planning on having a baby I better set up a baby fund. If the car is getting older, do I need to up the car maintence fund? Am I consistently under budget in groceries, then I can move some of that money elsewere?

Not only video inventory your house. INSPECT your house for needed maintence. How long has it been since you've had your heating/cooling unit inspected? If you can't do it yourself, call a professional. Check the joints on your plumbing fixtures, build up of hard water deposits are indications of a slow leak on a joint. Do screws need to tightened on your door handles, coffee tables, etc. There's a lot of dust bunnies behind that nice entertainment center. One spark and that could cause a fire, clean it up. Check the battieries in your smoke detectors etc. Do you have an emergencey kit? Check on things in there, I've recently discovered old bandaid don't stick all that well...is it time for new ones. Go through your meds, OTC and RX, are they out dated, toss or flush them. Do you have old food you need to use quickly or toss. Look at the expected life on your appliances, it might be time to start setting aside money for a new one. It also might be a great saving to go ahead and get a new one that is more energy efficent now then wait for the old one to die, weight the options. Lots of old useless stuff piled up is fire hazard, if you don't use it, sell it, trash it, give it way. Do you know where all your important papers are? Are they all together and up to date?

It's much easier to find the money for sceduled repairs and maintence then to have an 'emergency'.

[disneysteve]

My apologies. Calling balancing the checkbook daily a waste of time wasn't appropriate. I realize we don't all manage our finances the same way. Personally, balancing monthly works fine for me but we don't use our account the same way as others. We don't use a debit card, so there aren't nearly as many transactions to keep track of as there would be if we did. And we maintain a comfortable balance so we don't have to worry about overdrawing the account.

I respect anyone who balances their checkbook, no matter how often, as so many people don't which I'll never understand.

[Ima saver]

I only balance my checkbook monthly because we do not use a debit card either and only write about 10 -15 checks a month. I do check all of my checking and money market accounts daily to see what activity has occured.

[sakigt]

In my case, it's not a waste of time because DH doesn't always let me know when he has taken money out of the account. I'm always asking him for receipts, but he often loses them. So it's important for me to go online and balance the checkbook every day when I know the funds are low. At the least, I balance it about every 5-7 days. He gets paid irregularly, so that makes it tougher to keep a fairly constant balance in the account.

Dont feel weird. I do mine almost daily as well. I write things I spend in a book, then highlight through them when it clears online. That way, I can see if something isnt highlighted easily and also make sure I didnt forget to mark anything down.

Usually by payday Ive got less than $5 in my checking account. Either it is spent or earning a better intrest rate elsewhere.

/anal retentive