Spring Cleaning - Financially Speaking

Spring snuck in late last week and was missed by many with all the news focused on COVID-19.  As most of us find ourselves at home during the pandemic, we might as well do something rewarding with all that time. Along with the inspiration to start cleaning our homes from top to bottom, this year, consider adding in a financial spring clean.  Here are few tips to get you started:

1. Declutter – Let’s ‘Spark Joy’ in our financial lives. Before you start to organize, first get rid of what you do not need.This can apply to paper and digital records. You may have duplicate items, old receipts/invoices, trade slips (with same information on month end statements), old tax records (CRA recommends keep all returns and supporting documents for 6 years). Make sure you shred your paper items – once we are able to leave our homes, Staples offers professional shredding in-store or, if you have a large volume of items, consider hiring a shredding service to come to your home.

2. Go paperless – Sign up for electronic statements, confirmations, fee reports, and tax receipts for investments held through our securities firm, RGF Wealth Management Ltd. at https://rgfwealth.raymondjames.ca., as well as electronic bank and credit card statements, pay stubs, and utility bills. Download and save your statements to your digital filing system or app.

3. Sign up for CRA My account – This is a very useful tool. It can help you gain a far better overview of your financial standing on an ongoing basis. Click here for more information.

4. Create a filing system – organize your financial papers in whatever way works for you – envelopes, folders, spreadsheets, computer software, and phone apps are all great methods that work. Try to have your digital and paper filing systems match.

5. Consolidate accounts – Take a look at all your investment accounts: could some of them be consolidated? How about your bank accounts: do you have some that you rarely use and should close?

6. Update your budget – look at what you spend and what you save. How about all those monthly subscriptions: Are there ones that you do not use or really do not need? Consider cancelling them.

7. Review important documents – while you are in process of going through financial documents and cleaning up, take a look at your insurance policies, will, power of attorney and Representation Agreement. Do these documents need to be updated?

This spring, take the time to for a financial spring cleaning.  You will feel accomplished and ultimately in a better financial place.

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