I’m no expert when it comes to finance – I splurge here and there for the most random things, but I’ve managed to keep my family on budget and afford our home/mortgage, full-time graduate student, preschool, childcare while being a single income family. I’m hoping to do a series of Frugal Friday about Financial Health and some of the various things that I’ve done for my family that I wanted to share with you:
For those of you just starting off with evaluating your financial health or just married/had a kid, I would recommend:
- Create a budget and start following it
- Sign up for Mint.com or Quicken or another financial tool – it’s a great way to create a budget and also help you stay on track. Mint is great and also very flexible with its availability as an app, as well
- Check your bank – make sure that you are getting good deals, rates and not paying additional fees
- Start having your money automatically transferred to a savings account (Even though we are on a tight budget, I currently have 4 automatic transfers every month into four different savings account – 2 for my kids; 1 for emergency fund; and 1 for our car replacement as our current car is now 11 years old and maintenance is starting to cost more)
- For those of you who just finished school and have loans, as soon as you graduate and figure out how much you owe monthly, start deducting that from your monthly pay. Even though most loans, you will have a 6 month grace period where you aren’t in repayment yet, start putting that monthly money aside. It’ll be great for any emergency where you may have a hardship or forbearance request that may take longer – even though you may be unemployed, filing that forbearance can take longer and you don’t want to default on your loan repayments!
- Set up automatic bill payments (also check to see if they do paperless bills and sometimes, they’ll offer you a deal. AT&T is currently offering a $10 gift card if you do paperless with them) There is also www.mycheckfree.com where you can online pay multiple bills
- Identify 3 recurring expenses that could be reduced
- Evaluate your insurance policies (renters, homeowner, disability, auto and life insurance)
- Negotiate better rates (your cable, phone, internet, credit card interest rate, insurance, etc!)
- Update the beneficiaries on your accounts and insurance policies
- Complete or update important legal documents (will, advance medical directive, etc) – also take note that if you need a notary, don’t pay the notary fee – Chase Bank (as long as you’re a customer) will provide a free notary service
- Inventory your possessions so you can file an accurate claim if necessary – take pictures!
I actually schedule in these quarterly/regular updates in my Google Calendar:
- Submit receipts for reimbursements (flex spending – this is done monthly for childcare, business expenses, insurance claims)
- Meet with your spouse about financial goals, duties, hopes and dreams (this is also where I update my life plan spreadsheet)
- Sell the stuff we no longer need/use on Craigslist, eBay, Hand Me Downs, consignment resale stores
- Donate the stuff we no longer need/use on Freecycle, TPC Swap n Sale, friends, or any other non-profits taking donations
- Cash in reward points and gift cards before they expire
- Create a “grab and go” box for emergencies
- Clean out files and shred sensitive documents
- Check your credit report (Do it for free at www.annualcreditreport.com – I actually have this scheduled to do every 4 months with each of the credit agencies)
- Optimize your participation in employer benefits
Coming next – Retirement savings!
