Staying on top of your finances is a good, healthy thing. It should avoid surprises, improve predictability, and hopefully leave you assured that there's one less thing to worry about.
I'm writing down some checklists of things to do. Your particular situation is most likely different from mine, but I've tried to be broad and so hopefully you can simply trim, and then add items that are duplicate if for example you have multiple credit cards.
Every Year
- Keep track of your retirement balance.
- Are you on track?
- Do you need to adjust your goals?
- Is your investment mix performing as you expect?
- Keep track of your mortgage balance.
- Do you care to make any advance payments?
- Keep track of other long-term saving goals.
- Education.
- Special projects.
- Assisting relatives.
Every Quarter
- Review your tax payments to see if you're on track.
- Adjust deductions as needed.
- Review any larger projects coming up.
- Home maintenance.
- Home improvement.
- Review your budget.
- Are there missing line items?
- Are there line items that no longer apply?
- Have any amounts that need adjusting?
Every Month
- Do you have any special expenses this month?
- Any big purchase.
- Auto tab renewals.
- Car insurance.
- Home insurance.
- Medical procedures.
- Travel.
- Pay any monthly bills.
- Auto loan.
- Cleaning.
- Internet access.
- Mortgage.
- Utilities.
- Education.
Every Week
- Keep track of your bank balance.
- Keep track of any investments.
- Do you have any assets you should liquidate?
- Do you have any assets you should reallocate?
- Keep track of your credit card balance.
- Pay off whatever your cashflow affords (your budget should help here!)
Happy checking!
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