3 Easy Financial Housekeeping Tasks with a Big Payoff

The slowed-down pace of summer for many of us makes it an ideal time to tackle some important financial housekeeping tasks. No heavy lifting, but rather, some quick check-ins on your financial life to make sure everything is as you want it, and need it to be.

Check your beneficiaries on all retirement accounts. 

This is so very important my friends. When it comes to who will inherit your 401(k)s, 403(b), IRAs, etc., the law is that the beneficiary on file with the administrator of each account will get the money. It doesn’t matter what you have written in a will or trust. With retirement accounts, it’s the beneficiary form on file with each account that rules supreme.

Can’t remember who you named as the beneficiary when you opened the account 10, 20, or 30 years ago? That’s exactly my point! You need to check pronto and update, if necessary. This is especially important if you have divorced and somehow didn’t tackle this when settling your affairs. If your ex is still listed as the beneficiary, even though you didn’t make that account part of his/her share of the settlement, your ex will nonetheless get the money.

If you have a life insurance policy or any annuities I want you to make sure those beneficiary forms are also up to date.

Rebalance Your Retirement Portfolio.

 I am all for being a long-term investor, but that doesn’t mean you get to check out for years. At least once a year you should log in and make sure your mix of investments—stocks/bonds/cash—is in line with your long-term goals. The strong performance of stocks over the past five years could mean the percentage of your overall portfolio invested in stocks is more than you want. Or perhaps the issue is you are that much closer to retirement and you want to dial back your portfolio risk by reducing the amount you have invested in stocks. The good news is that you can move money around inside retirement accounts (selling shares of one fund and buying shares of another) without any tax bill.

Conduct a Self-Audit of Your Recurring Subscription Payments.

Let’s be real, it’s impossible to keep a complete list in our heads of all the recurring annual and monthly payments In fact, businesses are counting on us forgetting! But what’s a smart business plan for them can just be a waste of money for you.

I would be shocked if you didn’t find at least one or two subscriptions show up on your credit card statements that you had forgotten about, and that you don’t use anymore. Streaming, music, games, language apps, productivity apps you signed up for but no longer need/use. This is such an easy way to save $100 or more a year. Simply by making sure you aren’t paying for what you don’t use. And for extra savings, take a spin through all the recurring payment plans you want to keep. Is there a less expensive tier that could make sense?