Today was the first warm day after our never ending Winter this year. Officially, it’s finally Spring and that time to “Spring clean” your finances. When you Spring clean your home, you get rid of old boxes, merge purses and wallets, empty garages and crawl spaces and this how you can do the same thing with your finances.
Think of the awesome feeling when you’ve orgnaized your home. You’ll get double the awesome feeling knowing that now you are saving money as well as being orgainzed!
Here are the five places to “spring clean”.
- Investments and Accounts: Take a look at all your holdings and if you own funds or ETFs that are in the same sector or have the same stocks – merge them together. Get you advisor to work for some of their commissions and have her make you a 360 plan. Look at ALL of your holdings and do a proper diversification so that you aren’t holding to many of one sectors, asset classes or stocks.
- RRSPs, TFSAs and Pensions: While you’re with your advisor, take a look how many TFSA, RRSPs and Group RRSPs you have. See if you can consolidate them to save on fees and investments. Consolidate them with one financial institution. Those lost dollars that we loose in inefficiencies or fees are dollars to spend in retirement on yourself.
- Credit Cards: Do you have too many credit and debit cards? You should keep one debit card and one credit card in your wallet and then keep a credit card for emergencies. Have a saving and a chequing account and you’re good to go! Two bank and credit card accounts are cheaper and easier to mange for Fraud etc.
- Purse, Wallet and Change Jar: Give your purse or wallet a good spring bling clean. Be sure to get rid of old receipts, drink tickets, and coat room slips. Put your point cards on your smartphone and throw out the actual cards. Then go and file anything else that you don’t need on a daily basis. Small is beautiful. Roll the coins in your jar, take out the buttons, and deposit that extra cash into your account! You’ll feel great.
- Pantry: Look through your pantry and fridge and make an effort to eat down your inventory. The box of Kraft dinner, free bottle of hot sauce from the Exhibition, and frozen chicken wings will make an awesome meal! Try to eat through everything AND then get groceries.
For fun, add up all of the fees, savings and jar coins to see how much money you made and saved! Your finances will smell like new hundred dollar bills after your cleaning.
Have an awesome week,
Dave
