Disorganized finances can make it difficult to plan and set your goals. Following a pattern of established management guidelines can help you stay on-top of your financial situation throughout the year. Whether you need to overhaul your budget, assess your credit standing, or get a better handle on your investments, stick to these 8 daily habits to make it easier to manage your financial life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many people have expenses for services they rarely use. Look at every withdrawal that is made from your financial accounts during the month. Is there a gym membership that you\u2019re not using? Or could you change your cable subscription to a cheaper package? Is there anywhere else you could cut expenses? Sit down with your monthly spending report and see where you can and absolutely cannot cut costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The number of outflows you trim from your budget can be put into your retirement account or an emergency fund. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
People often accumulate multiple financial accounts, which can increase the burden of managing them. It also creates more opportunities for cybercrime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s difficult to figure out how well or how poorly your nest egg is performing if your retirement assets are spread across multiple accounts. Consolidating as many accounts as possible will make performance evaluation a simpler procedure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether you store your important documents electronically or in hard-copy format, it\u2019s important to safeguard and organize them. Have you ever asked yourself if you should continue holding onto your financial paperwork? A good rule of thumb is to remember three, seven, or forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Files needed to be kept for three years are documents such as household bills, credit card statements, or receipts for minor purchases. Documents that should be kept for seven years are things like bank statements, pay stubs, and tax returns. Receipts for major purchases, annual investment statements, insurance policies, retirement account statements and anything else of great importance should all be kept forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While only you can know what system works best for you to store these records, make sure to keep it simple, clean out your files once a year, and keep them all in one place for easy access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the key principles in money management is to establish goals for yourself and track your progress towards meeting those goals. For example, if your aspiration is to save a certain amount of money for retirement, then you can set monthly and annual savings targets or a goal for a specific account balance and regularly examine your progress towards these goals. If you\u2019re not putting enough away every month, consider reducing expenses in other areas of your life. If your account balance doesn\u2019t reach your target by the end of the year, perhaps you need to speak with a financial advisor about a different investment strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your credit report impacts many areas of your financial life. It determines if you get approved for a credit card or obtain the best interest rate on a home mortgage. The higher your score, the more financial strength you will have. To increase your score, try to keep old accounts open, pay down credit cards to less than 30% utilization, and make your payments on time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n