AFL Investments: Spring clean your finances

With the holidays behind us and spring in the air, you should take this opportunity to re-evaluate your finances and give them a good spring cleaning.   Here’s how to freshen up your financial plan. 

1: Get everyone on the same page

In most families or couples, one person may be responsible for all of the financial planning and decision-making.  

While this is a great strategy, now would be a great time to let your partner and, perhaps, your older children in on the finances.  

Family members can bounce ideas off of each other and come up with ways to reduce spending or share creative ways to allocate the savings.  

Try making a checklist of the family’s finances —including the budget, bank and investment accounts, and a balance sheet — that everyone can reference, and then figure out who will take care of each task.  

Further organize all of this information into one location that is easily accessible to those involved.  

Ideas range from setting up a shared virtual folder on your family computer or putting together physical binder that is safely kept in a specific area of the house.  

2. Review your goals and get specific

For some, financial planning may seem like a cycle; good intentions that are forgotten and set aside by June.  

You may be trying to get rid of past debts while maintaining a sense of control in your present cash flow, which can feel like a daunting and difficult set of tasks.  

The more specific and meaningful we are with our goals and objectives, the more likely we are to follow through with them.  

For example, a goal of “paying down debt” may not be enough to jump start you but a specific goal of “paying down your entire car loan by December 2014 so that you can start saving for that trip to Fiji” might just be the motivation that you need.  

Use this spring to clean up your starting point.  Review your goals and objectives and ask yourself what exactly you are trying to accomplish, by when and why.  

You can then begin to put an action plan together to reach the finish line.  

3.  Shred, Shred , Shred!

Do you still have paper bank statements, pay stubs, credit card statements from years ago?  

Spring cleaning is a time to pull out (and throw out) all of the unnecessary clutter.  

That being said, it’s time to clear out that old box (or boxes) of paper and begin shredding.   

A good rule of thumb is to keep pay stubs and bank statements for a year, and credit card statements for at least 45 days.  

For some, it’s more about peace of mind to keep things “just in case” because “you never know when you might need a document.”  

Not to worry.  

All of that paper can be scanned onto your computer and saved in an archive file.  

This way, you can hang on to something you may need in the future and still get rid of the clutter in your home.  

4. Review hidden fees and scope out the competition

Companies change their terms, conditions and fees regularly and it is important to make sure that you’re paying a little as possible for your monthly services.  

Review your monthly bills to see if anything has changed with your cable television, Internet or cellphone plan and take this opportunity to call around to the competition to see if they’re offering a better deal.   

5. Review the entire picture annually

 Financial planning may seem difficult and time-consuming but you will find that taking the opportunity to organize yourself and clear out the ‘dust bunnies’ from your finances, will be rewarded in the long run.   

Be sure to review your financial plan on an annual basis in order to address any changes that have occurred over the past twelve months. 

Did you have a baby?  Get Married? Make a big purchase? Have your goals changed altogether?  

These are questions that will have an impact on our financial plan and should be addressed with your financial planner. 

Could your finances use a little spring cleaning this year?  Elyse Rayner is a wealth manager with AFL Investments and can be reached at (441) 294-5738.