Ring in the New Year right! 

Perform your own financial checkup……

 

 

At the end of each calendar year, I complete my own personal financial statement. It can be a simple own that you get from a bank or online.

 

Assets: I list every account I have. I hope I have more money saved than the prior year, but if I do not I analyze my saving habits, spending behavior and portfolio performance. I then review all the accounts to make sure I am not paying unjust fees, earning some interest and have all the statements for the year. Can I consolidate any of these accounts?

 

Liabilities: After that, I move onto my liabilities to see what I owe and what I can pay off. If I can pay off balances on credit cards I do it before the end of the year. I should have been checking every statement each month, but if not I do it now. Have there been unjust fees? Do I recognize every charge and what are my interest rates? I will check my balance, my payment history and the rates. If I am not satisfied, I will call the company, ask some questions and request a lower rate. If not I can resort to threats, but honestly, they do not care.

 

Credit: Lastly I get a copy of my credit report. I am allowed one free copy from each of the three bureaus annually. After reviewing carefully for erroneous information, I make sure my payments have been on time and my balances are not too high. If there is anything weird I check on it and also look at the inquiries made on my credit in the past year. I do not want too many people snooping around!  I then check to see if I should close out any accounts and will it help or hurt my FICO score.

 

Lastly, I vow to spend less, save more and pay with cash in the New Year!

Dale Siegel

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