4 Ways to Improve Your Finances: Summer 2010

photo credit: Яick Harris

Welcome to summertime! In between grilling, vacations, and just enjoying the sunshine, take some time  to improve your finances and your savings this summer:

1. Pay estimated taxes (if needed). For those in the U.S. who pay quarterly estimated income taxes, the due date is June 15th.
2. Review the last six months of financial records and your savings goals. Go over your expenses as compared to your budget: are you staying on track? If not, what can you do to get back to where you should be? Are you on track with your contributions towards your savings accounts and retirement contributions? If not, contribute a portion of what you wanted to to take advantage of the properties of compound interest and long-term investing. Finally, are you getting the most that you can get out of your bank accounts and credit cards? Check to see if you can get better interest rates with a different bank or credit union.
3. Cut your expenses. What can you cut or reduce the cost of? Is there anything that you can downgrade to save a little more money? Perhaps you could find a way to take advantage of special offers, as some do when they threaten to cancel (or actually cancel) their cable bill in order to be eligible for new client offers.
4. Make financial wonderful home improvements. You could take on big projects — like new windows and doors — that cost a lot of money and time up front, but save money over the longterm. You can also do little things, like installing your own programmable thermostat, or planting a small garden.

What are you doing this summer to improve your financial situation?

Tagged as: improvement, planning

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