By Danielle Arlotta, CFP®
What are some of the best practices to get your finances in order? We compiled a list! A lot of these items you can do throughout the year, but some have deadlines. We see a big spike in people who want to start seriously planning for their finances at the start of the year. We love to see that, but we also want to make sure that those intentions carry through the whole year.
- Create a budget and stick to it! You want to make sure you are living within your means and creating a surplus so that you can save for your goals every month.
- Calculate how much your emergency fund should be, we generally recommend 3-6 months of living expenses.
- Open a high-yield savings account, this is where you should keep your emergency fund.
- If you have consumer debt, like credit cards or personal loans, create a plan to pay those down. The budget will help with this.
- Increase your retirement contributions, if you have a retirement plan at work.
- If you have extra savings and are below the income limits for IRA contributions, make those before April 15th.
- File taxes – you have until April 15th! (Unless you file for an extension, then you have until October 15th.)
- Review your subscriptions and delete what is not needed.