The beginning of spring means not only the cleaning of the house, but also the finances. Lynette Khalfani Cox, financial expert and founder of the financial blog, Ask The Money Coach , shares her top five tips for making a good financial spring break.
Tip # 1: Check your credit reports and credit scores
Spring is the season of the purchase of the top house. But if you are in the mortgage market, mortgage lenders want to see good credit (a credit score of 700 or more).
There are many ways to increase your credit rating: Pay all your bills on time, avoid inquiries and put false information in your credit files with TransUnion, Experian and Equifax.
By law, the government requires each of these three major credit bureaus to provide all adults in the United States with a free copy of their credit report every year. To get your free credit reports, go to easy to AnnualCreditReport.com .
However, your credit reports do not include your credit scores. Use a website or a free application like CreditSesame.com, to free credit scores receive .
Tip # 2: Shred Antique Financial Documents
Classify your previous bank statements, pay bills, invoices and other financial documents and keep only the absolutely necessary documents. If you are not sure about throwing, scanning or making a copy of certain types of receipts, go ahead and shred!
You only need to keep the tax records for three years as the IRS can only validate your backup for three years. (For those who deliberately commit tax evasion, there is no limit to when the IRS can audit you).
In addition, deleting obsolete documents can help you organize yourself better. Keeping a good record is crucial to declare your taxes this spring and to claim the maximum deductions and tax credits to which you are entitled. The organization could get you a large tax refund check, as the IRS says the average tax refund is about $ 3,000.
If you 're waiting for a refund and want to confirm it, you can go to IRS.gov and go to the "Where is my refund?" Tab . Click.
Tip 3: Save your financial passwords and keep them in a safe place
You want strong passwords to prevent identity theft. Remember last year's Equifax data breach that stole sensitive data from 145 million Americans? Well, Equifax recently announced that nearly 2 million more people were affected by the rape.
Do not make it easier for your cyber thieves to get your information because they were not strict with passwords.
Make sure you do not use the same password and credentials for all of your online bank accounts and other accounts. Protect yourself from identity theft by storing your financial passwords in a document and keeping them in a safe place.
You can store password information electronically in the cloud. Alternatively, you can save your passwords and store them in a safe place, such as In a safe deposit box, a safe deposit box or a safe in your bank or credit union.
Tip 4: Check your budget
Review all your initial expenses and compare these bills with your net income or net salary. The key here is to make sure that you do not spend money or spend more than you earn.
Also change your thoughts about the budget.
Do not think of it as something negative. Instead, check your budget as an empowerment tool. It's something that gives you a cost action plan and helps you prioritize where you put in the hard-earned dollars.
Tip # 5: Pay off your debts and increase your savings
Unfortunately, most people do not even have $ 500 in savings. However, Americans have a total of $ 1 trillion in credit card debt and nearly $ 1.5 trillion in student loans.
Make a plan to repay the debt aggressively so that you can increase your savings and your net worth. It's not always easy, but you can reduce debt by using money more often than plastic; bargain to get lower interest rates on your cards; and also double your minimum payments instead of making minimal payments. If you can not pay twice, you pay what you can afford - above the minimum fee.
Similarly, you begin to save money each month. Even if it only costs $ 25 or $ 50 to pay monthly, every little gesture is useful.
By addressing these five elements, you will have your financial home this spring, and for the rest of 2018 too!
For more news and financial advice, visit Great Day Washington every morning at 9 pm on WUSA9 and follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .
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