July can be a time to review those New Year’s Resolutions. Did you make any for 2018?
Even if you didn’t, now is a good time to revisit the subject, as the year still has five months to go!
Aauugghh! Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Often the calendar can help create structure for you. Bills get paid after payday; retirement plan contributions occur on paydays, etc. If you can itemize on your taxes, you may have dropped off many bags in the last week of December at your local thrift store. In my home town, Macklemore helped us out one year. Parents of college bound students have a date with the revised FAFSA; and by the end of January, you’ll have some thoughts about your past year’s tax return. For a quick read on what you can learn from your 2017 tax return from Morningstar, check here. Also, with that 2017 tax return near your screen, take a few minutes to run through a paycheck “checkup”. The IRS wants to help you with this, so you can withhold more in taxes if you need to, or loosen up those purse strings due to the increase in your standard deduction for 2018.
As mentioned in a previous post, Fidelity and others generate helpful suggestions for our annual resolutions. One study indicates that financial resolutions are easier to keep than those about food or exercise.
Let’s begin with the one geared for success! Financial tasks and affirmative statements.
In five months you can:
- Make 5 Roth IRA contributions
- Set up and fund an emergency savings account with $500-$1000
- Check all your accounts with beneficiaries- retirement, insurance and banking
- Increase your charitable giving in order to get that company match or set aside funds for a non-profit, instead of the IRS.
What do you want to improve during the balance of 2018?
No Dollar Left Behind 