How to Improve Your Financial Health in 2021
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How should you start a year-end financial health checkup?
your money briefing for wednesday december 30th i'm jr whalen for the wall street journal making a new year's resolution to be smarter about money is one thing carrying it out is another it may sound like a daunting task but evaluating your personal finances to improve your financial health can involve just a few simple tasks
So that's anywhere from taking a look at what bills you still have or what debt you're looking at and coming up with a more realistic budget before you launch into big savings goals from buying a house to even getting a dog.
That's our personal finance reporter, Amber Burton. Coming up, she'll run through some ways you can do a quick evaluation of your finances and get in a stronger position in the new year. That's after the break.
Setting financial goals for 2021 is smart. Knowing where to start to help ensure you reach those goals is even smarter. Our personal finance reporter, Amber Burton, is here. She's got some ways you can catch and limit unnecessary spending and improve your overall financial health. Amber, thanks for being with us.
Thanks for having me.
So being able to save money is key to boosting financial health.
What simple budgeting step reveals where your money is going?
Where should people start?
When we go into a new year, we often have these big money goals. But really, the place to start would be taking a step back and taking stock of really where you are and what your financial health is looking like. So that's anywhere from taking a look at what bills you still have or what debt you're looking at and coming up with a more realistic budget before you launch into big savings goals from buying a house to even getting a dog.
But it's hard for a lot of people to save when they're faced with a list of monthly bills.
Yeah, when it comes to billing, a lot of financial experts, they go to the old-fashioned advice of just, you know, pull those statements and go through it line by line. It never fails people to just really get a good idea of what they're spending every month, go through it, figure out what you value. Is there anything in your statement that doesn't align with what you want and what your goals are right now?
How can streamlining accounts and rolling over retirement funds help?
And that helps you really adjust your spending moving forward into the new year. And many people will find when they're assessing their bills and their statements that they have a lot of different accounts in different places. And so if you find that that's the case, you might want to streamline these accounts. Streamlining accounts can be a real benefit because you can get rid of those maintenance fees on accounts that you might not even be using and really add up. Another thing that you might consider streamlining is you might find that you have different little retirement accounts from past jobs in different places. So really rolling those together into possibly like an IRA could go a long way as well in terms of just being able to keep an eye on where your funds are and what you have.
What is a personal financial self-audit and which subscriptions should you cancel?
Now, we've heard financial experts talk about doing a self audit. What is that?
So to do a self audit, it's really just a matter of, again, taking stock of those payments that you might be forgetting about. So the first step that was recommended by one financial planner was start by looking for your subscriptions. Everybody knows that they have a lot of different subscriptions, whether that be to music companies or to magazines. Take stock of the subscriptions that you have and Maybe turn off some of the ones that you're not using anymore. The ones that often slip through the cracks are subscriptions for apps and free trials that people often forget to cancel or pause after a certain amount of time.
You know, regardless of what time of year it is, it's always a good idea for people to keep an eye on their credit. And the Federal CARES Act includes the ability to pull free weekly credit reports.
How can you monitor your credit reports and handle promotional 0% credit offers?
But that expires at the end of December. Are there other options for people to check on their credit?
there are definitely other options for people to check on their credit and it should really be built into their kind of annual self-check throughout the year.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
How should you start a year-end financial health checkup?
0:05–1:18
2
What simple budgeting step reveals where your money is going?
1:18–2:10
3
How can streamlining accounts and rolling over retirement funds help?
2:10–2:54
4
What is a personal financial self-audit and which subscriptions should you cancel?
2:54–3:45
5
How can you monitor your credit reports and handle promotional 0% credit offers?
3:45–5:08
6
What steps should prospective homebuyers take to protect their finances?
5:08–6:28
Speakers
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