Some experts think ‘Tis the Season to check where you’re at financially
With the end of the year right around the corner, some financial planners think it’s a good idea to take a look and see how you’ve done financially in 2012.
Financial planner Eleanor Blayney says it's a good idea to come up with a year-end checklist. She calls it the ‘Santa Claus Audit’ to figure out if you've been naughty or nice with your money. So how do you wind up on the nice list?
“Shop intentionally. I guarantee you’re going to see something you want. You’re going to see something you think you’re going to need. But if it’s not on the list, wait,” Blayney told KTRH.
Blaney says the best way to wind up on the nice list is to live within your means.
“Work from a budget. We need to have a budget,” she explained.
Houston financial planner and author Richard Rosso thinks putting a list together is a good idea, but he has a different way of going about it.
“It’s probably more ambitious to do a checklist at the beginning of the new year because we want to be good and we want to good things with our money,” Rosso said.
However, Rosso says working on that list, and more importantly living within a budget, is easier said than done.
“A third of all American workers have less than a thousand dollars in savings. And most people are tapping savings not for the fun stuff, but for food and for energy,” Rosso said.
If you want to wind up on the financial nice list, Blaney says a couple of other things you should do to wind up on the nice list include knowing your credit score and talking to your adult children about their finances.
