Here are six things you can do right now to check in on your finances—and make the rest of the year run just a little smoother.
With longer days, slower schedules, and fewer deadlines, summer is the perfect time to take stock of your financial health. With enough distance from both the stress of tax season and the frenzy of end-of-year planning, you can take some time to review the goals and processes dictating your finances.
Here are six things you can do right now to check in on your finances—and make the rest of the year run just a little smoother.
The first and easiest thing to do to gain control over your finances is to schedule a call with us. We’re always ready for an honest conversation on your financial strategy as it pertains to your overarching goals. We advise clients on all types of investment and financial life planning issues, including managing various retirement accounts, crafting charitable giving plans, and deciding what percent of your assets to invest and what percent to keep liquid. We’re even happy to connect directly with the rest of your team—including tax and legal advisors—and work together in pursuit of your financial goals. We’re always here for you, at any time of year.
It’s an easy but oft-forgotten step in financial life planning: updating your beneficiaries. Designating the appropriate beneficiaries is a critical step in estate planning, but many people set them once then forget them. Now is a good time to review these elections across retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and even certain bank or brokerage accounts.
It’s also important to review how beneficiaries are designated, not just who they are, as the way in which you designate beneficiaries can have important ramifications on your tax bill. For example, there are different tax implications for naming an individual or naming a trust.
From a tax perspective, beneficiary decisions can shape the method and speed of asset distribution and taxation. Take five minutes now to do a comprehensive audit and gain peace of mind for your heirs. If you need help making decisions, we’re happy to review your options with you.
If you’re like many people, you may have assets scattered across various accounts: a checking account here, a savings account there, a neglected 401(K) from a previous job, etc. When their assets are scattered, people don’t typically have a trusted advisor actively managing their accounts, which means their money isn’t working for them as optimally as it could.
This is a perfect time to consider consolidating accounts. In so doing, you’ll gain the benefit of active management as well as a more streamlined, more organized system that can make things more efficient at the end of the year and during tax season. We’re happy to chat with you about whether consolidating your assets might make sense for you, and we can step in to actively manage any accounts that may have been overlooked.
Managing your financial health needn’t be stressful. The slower summer months are a perfect time to conduct a mid-year check-in and make sure your plans align with your short- and long-term goals. As always, we’re here to help.
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