10 Ways To Clean Up Your Daily Finances This Month
Your finances should be prioritized the same way you take on general housekeeping tasks in your home. Regular housekeeping ensures your home stays clean and organized. Similarly, conducting a financial audit on a regular basis keeps financial clutter, like late fees and forgotten subscriptions you’re still paying for, from collecting in your life.
Not sure which aspects of your daily finances to review first? Frugal living YouTuber Kate Kaden recently shared a YouTube video outlining a financial housekeeping checklist featuring 10 cleaning-themed tips.
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Follow through with these suggestions regularly as part of your financial due diligence.
1. Sweep the Accounts
Take the time to review your checking, savings and retirement accounts to know where you stand financially. This sweep allows you to understand how much money you have, find a solution for any issues creeping in and examine where there may be room for improvement, such as maxing out your Roth IRA each year.
2. Scrub Your Subscriptions
Conduct an inventory of every service you subscribe to, from entertainment streaming platforms to cloud storage solutions, and ask yourself if you still actively use it. Anything you use frequently is worth keeping, but if you don’t, it might be worth hitting unsubscribe.
3. Clean Out Financial Clutter
Your inbox is often a major source of financial clutter, so Kaden recommended unsubscribing from retailers and any other companies consistently emailing you junk messages.
Another helpful space to clear up is anywhere there are stored payments. If you have your payment information stored on a retailer website like Bath & Body Works but know you don’t really need to buy anything there, clear it out.
4. Polish the Pantry
Go through your pantry and bring the food with the closest expiration date to today to the front. Out of sight often means out of mind. Knowing what you have and using it up helps prevent food waste and saves money on your next grocery bill.
5. Freshen Up Future Funding
Now’s a good time to look for one-off expenses, like car registration and back-to-school supplies, where you’ll spend a little more money than usual.
If you tailor your monthly budget for the month you’re entering (as Kaden does), you can incorporate it in to avoid being surprised or stretched thin.
6. Squeegee Your Budget
You don’t need to rewrite your budget every single month. Rather, Kaden cited the example of how she treats her own monthly budget.
She uses the same template, but changes the numbers to be appropriate for what’s happening. Often, this means adding or subtracting any line items that are different for the month. You might pay for back-to-school expenses during the fall, for example, but this expense is usually specific to the start of the school semester.
7. Make an Immaculate Emergency Fund
If you already have a budget buffer in your checking account (a.k.a. funds to cover up to a month’s worth of expenses), start working on your emergency fund.
Make sure this fund has three to six months’ worth of money you can easily access to pay for unexpected expenses. Put whatever extra income you have toward this fund to ensure there’s some space between you and a disaster.
8. Dust Off Your Future
It’s time to create a future for yourself. A few ways you can get started, per Kaden’s suggestions, include investing in a retirement account, paying extra on your mortgage, building up your savings or emergency fund and paying off any debt.
Neglecting to do this regularly means allowing dust to settle on your future, so don’t forget about the future version of yourself.
9. Keep Your Space Pristine
Walk into each room in your home and ask yourself, “What in here is costing me money?”
Maybe it’s a leaky faucet in the bathroom. Or light bulbs are left on in the bedroom. Once you start asking yourself this question, Kaden said, you can better see where the money leaks are in your home and fix them. The results mean your home will be in pristine shape — and you’ll be saving more money.
10. Finish With Gratitude
If you’ve implemented the above suggestions, you’ll find that you and your home are in great shape. And now’s the time to be thankful.
“Financial housekeeping is not just about fixing things. It’s about appreciating what you’ve built.”
This article was provided by MoneyLion.com for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial, legal or tax advice.
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