The Life-Changing Magic of Financial Organization. Part Two:
Last month we suggested steps to take each month to keep your finances organized. This month, we're offering the following tasks to complete on a quarterly basis:
1. Check credit reports for yourself, your spouse, and your children. Be sure you recognize all accounts listed on the reports, and follow up on correcting inaccuracies. This can be done at no cost via annualcreditreport.com. There are three major reporting bureaus, so check one agency per quarter and make one quarter an "off" time.
2. Check in on your earnings. You have a few tasks to do in relation to your paycheck:
Be sure your tax withholding or your quarterly tax payments are adequate to avoid penalties at the federal and state level.
Check on your 401k contributions. Your goal should be to maximize both your contributions and the employer match. If you max out your 401k contributions early in the year, you might miss out on the employer match in subsequent months.
3. If you make quarterly tax payments, be sure you've done this and that prior quarters have posted as you've expected.
