Financial Spring Cleaning

Today is the first day of Spring!  I love this time of year.   It's warm, the sun is shining, flowers are blooming and plants are growing!  Since I don't do a Spring cleaning in my household, I figured a financial Spring cleaning is in order.  Below are the things I considered as part of my financial spring cleaning.

1. Check for unnecessary expenses.  Do you have any recurring, automatic charges that you no longer need? Magazine subscriptions? Credit card protection plans?  If so, cancel them.  The only thing I have is a pet plan that I need to cancel.  I can't cancel it until July for 1 cat and December for the other 2 cats.  I need to get on the ball about this and start saving for their medial expenses.

2.  Check for ways to save money on your monthly bills.  Is the contract up on your cable, telephone or internet service?  Maybe you can call and see if the company is willing to offer you a new lower rate.  If the company is unwilling then maybe you can check out other companies to see if they offer lower rates.  I need to get on finding a way to lower my cellular phone bill.  I have the added problem of my sister being unwilling to make any changes to the account.  I need to speak to her, again, about finding a way to lower this bill. It's almost $400 a month!

3.  Check on your retirement.  Did you know you can fund your 2015 IRA until tax day in 2016?   I am seriously going to consider this.  I don't know how to do it yet, but I really plan on looking into whether I should add my paltry retirement savings into my IRA for 2015 and then adding another $5,500 into it for 2016.  There is less than 1 month to get on this. I really need to catch up on my retirement savings.

4.  Check on your savings.  How much money are you saving?  Do you have enough for emergencies? It's important to make sure that you have enough money put away for a rainy day.  IF you don't have enough, you should be adding to it to make sure that one day you will have enough.  Also, check the interest rate on your savings account.  I have one "high yield" online savings account that pays 1%.  I previously had one paying 0.75%.  Make sure you are getting all the interest you can from having your money sit in a bank.

5. Check on your debt.  Do you have any small debts that you can get rid of quickly? Do it! It will be a mental boost to get rid small little debts that have been hanging around for awhile.  Otherwise it's time to make a plan for your money.  Make a plan to pay off a debt this year.  Make a plan to become debt free. You have a lot more power when you are debt free.

Those are the only things I considered for my Financial Spring Cleaning.  Does anyone else have any tips?