Maybe you can see the connection now. There are a couple of ways to look at the personal finance “refrigerator”, if you will.
Is your fridge full of beer, mustard and party leftovers [from last month]? (Lots of party, no emergency fund)
Is it full of impulse buys like pizza (short-term pleasure) , four types of sauce for chicken (too concentrated), or very few vegetables (not enough diversification), or just not enough real food to make a meal?
Refrigerator (Photo credit: nickfarr)
Or are you the fussy parent who makes sure that the fridge only has healthy, organic, locavore stuff in it?
Enough with the food analogies-let’s get to work.
Empty Personal Finance Plan? 5 things to do immediately
Check your credit at www.annualcreditreport.com
Get Social Security questions answered here: http://bit.ly/tTkcoK
Check the status of your emergency fund-how many months of income/expenses are in there?
Add up your debts (yes, all of them) Need a worksheet-check here .
What’s in your retirement plan? How much do you need?
Is your Personal Finance Plan too cluttered, too complex?
Find your old, left behind, retirement plans-assemble statements and account numbers to prepare for transfers
Rebalance portfolio asset classes and match up to your remaining years of work (aggressive, moderate, or conservative funds?)
Time to break up with some financial institutions? http://sm.wsj.com/QD4MwE or http://bit.ly/nbNn1W
(Be a financial locavore)
Check your beneficiaries, account titles and make sure that someone else knows where your records are http://bit.ly/tTkcoK
As it said in the blog post that inspired this one:
“Clean off one refrigerator shelf each week so you don’t have to do it all at once.”
Related articles
- Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day is today (lunaticoutpost.com)
No Dollar Left Behind 