Your Mid-Year Financial Checkup
With the weather warming up and days getting longer, it’s hard to believe that the year is already half over. As the season of barbecues and beaches kicks off, now’s a good time to give yourself a mid-year checkup for your financial wellness. Assess your spending habits, review your personal banking, check on your investments, and evaluate your tax planning strategies to ensure you’re on track. A few minutes with each can make a big difference in your financial life for years to come.
Not sure where to start? At Golden 1, we’ve broken it down intro seven steps to help you end your year song financially.
Step 1: Take A Look At Your Budget
Your budget does a lot of heavy lifting for your financial health. It’s time to check in and see how it’s doing.
- Review each category and see if you're overspending or underspending. Are there any areas you need to adjust?
- Consider any significant life changes that could impact your finances, such as marriage, having a child, divorce, or starting a new job.
- Did you have any setbacks with your budget? Don't worry. We have tips to help you get back on track. And if you don't have a budget yet, start with this simple budgeting worksheet.
Spending time with your budget and making the adjustments you need can make you more confident about your finances and end the year strong.
Step 2: Anticipate Major Expenses
After updating your monthly budget, list any major expenses you anticipate in the next six months. These might include replacing appliances, costly car repairs, or medical expenses not fully covered by insurance. Determine which spending category will cover these costs. Do you have an emergency fund for such expenses? Decide now to avoid stress and last-minute scrambles for money later.
If you don't have enough saved, add a savings plan to your monthly budget now, so the money will be ready when you need it.
Step 3: Check Your Tax Withholdings
Review your tax withholdings to see if any adjustments are needed. You can ask an accountant for assistance if numbers aren't your thing. The goal is to pay the correct amount, avoiding a large tax bill at year-end or giving the government the use of your money interest-free.
Step 4: Review Your Credit Score
Your credit score is like a grade for your financial health. If you're a Golden 1 member, you can access your credit score and full credit report with Credit Sense.
If your score has increased in the last six months, great job! Keep it up.
If it has dropped, review your report carefully. Are there errors you need to dispute with the credit bureaus? Is an unpaid credit card bill affecting your score? Do you need help with bill payments? Take action to improve your score today, whether by disputing errors, setting up automatic payments, or reducing credit card usage. A little extra work can go a long way to improve your credit score and unlock more long-term financial benefits.
Step 5: Give Your Investments A Review
Review your investments and make any necessary adjustments. Check your retirement contributions, stocks, bonds, trust funds, and savings certificates. Increase contributions where possible and ensure your other investments are performing as expected compared to other benchmarks. Make changes where you see fit, so your investments achieve what you want.
Step 6: Tackle Your Debt
List all your debts, including credit card debt and loans. Pick one to tackle first, either the one with the highest interest rate or the smallest balance. Create a plan to pay off this debt without neglecting the others. You can go about this two ways: cut your budget or boost your income to increase payments on this debt. Once you've paid it off, move to the next one on your list so you're on your way to a debt-free life.
Learn more with our free course 'Getting out of debt (and avoiding it in the future)'.
Step 7: Check In On Your Financial Resolutions
Those resolutions from January can feel like a long time ago, and summer’s a great time to check in on them. What did you want to accomplish this year? Save an extra $200 a month? Retire comfortably at 55?
Whatever you want to achieve, take some time to see if you're taking the right steps. If you've gotten sidetracked, reaffirm your commitment and create a plan to work on it for the rest of the year. It's never too late to make the effort to turn those resolutions into a reality.
Now that you've checked in on your finances, it's time to relax and enjoy the season. Financial wellness should always feel this good. Happy summer!
