Happy Financial New Year
Things to do today:
1.) Write down your odometer readings on all your vehicles. You don't know what 2011 brings, but if you end up wanting to deduct mileage you are going to need beginning and ending odometer readings on your cars.
2.) Go check your beneficiaries for your IRAs. Do you have your spouse named as a spousal beneficiary? Do you have contingent beneficiaries who are named and listed out specifically (not "all my children" or "my estate" or none at all?) If you can, try to make your beneficiaries pass per stirpes so it can skip generations, but an even better way is to say it can pass to "the beneficiaries of my beneficiaries". This way you can get the advantage of a "stretch IRA".
3.) Re-allocate your portfolio. What-ever asset allocation you wanted, is it still what you have? This is when you have to sell your winners and buy your losers, a difficult task intellectually. Do it.
4.) Look your debt in the eye. What do you owe, exactly? Not the monthly payments, the total amounts. When you're young and starting out there is a sense that the future is so bright that it can afford to pay for the past plus interest. Is this still true for you? Somewhere before you're around 40 you should be starting to get OUT of debt, not taking on new debt. (Exceptions apply... but are you exceptional?)
What other financial stuff needs a once a year check-up? Anyone?
1.) Write down your odometer readings on all your vehicles. You don't know what 2011 brings, but if you end up wanting to deduct mileage you are going to need beginning and ending odometer readings on your cars.
2.) Go check your beneficiaries for your IRAs. Do you have your spouse named as a spousal beneficiary? Do you have contingent beneficiaries who are named and listed out specifically (not "all my children" or "my estate" or none at all?) If you can, try to make your beneficiaries pass per stirpes so it can skip generations, but an even better way is to say it can pass to "the beneficiaries of my beneficiaries". This way you can get the advantage of a "stretch IRA".
3.) Re-allocate your portfolio. What-ever asset allocation you wanted, is it still what you have? This is when you have to sell your winners and buy your losers, a difficult task intellectually. Do it.
4.) Look your debt in the eye. What do you owe, exactly? Not the monthly payments, the total amounts. When you're young and starting out there is a sense that the future is so bright that it can afford to pay for the past plus interest. Is this still true for you? Somewhere before you're around 40 you should be starting to get OUT of debt, not taking on new debt. (Exceptions apply... but are you exceptional?)
What other financial stuff needs a once a year check-up? Anyone?