For many, spring means opening windows, sweeping out the dust, and rotating our wardrobes.
It’s an age-old tradition that is mirrored around the world, including Jewish customs at Passover and those for the Iranian holiday of Nowruz (i.e. the Persian New Year), which coincides with the first day of spring.
It’s also the perfect time to spring-clean your finances. You may be surprised by what’s hiding in your accounts, financial documents, and tax returns.
Here are 5 tips to help you spring-clean your finances.
1. Get your documents in order
First things first, are you on top of all of your financial paperwork?
Are all your official documents – wills, lasting powers of attorney, and birth and marriage certificates – together in a secure place where they can be easily found by you or the rest of the family, when necessary?
[You can find out how to create an “in case of death folder” here]
If you don’t have a will, or you have one but it’s not up to date with your current circumstances, this should be a top priority.
2. Clean Up Your Accounts
Do you find it a challenge to keep track of your various financial accounts?
These days, people tend to have bank, investment, and pension accounts with several institutions.
As expats, the picture is complicated further by the fact that these accounts are often held in different jurisdictions, across multiple currencies, and with varied tax and reporting requirements.
Consolidating these accounts can stop you from feeling disorganised.
It also gives you a better handle on your overall financial health and makes future financial projections more reliable.
3. Declutter your outgoings
We know all too well that the cost of living is rising – and fast.
Use this as a prompt to sit down and evaluate all your incomings and outgoings.
Grab your bank statements and a highlighter to look at what you’re spending.
Try not to pass judgment on yourself, simply identify your habits and use this opportunity to make improvements.
For example, are you paying for services or subscriptions that you don’t really use?
Try listing every single subscription you pay for, whether monthly or annually — e.g. video and music streaming, gym memberships, media subscriptions, landlines, antivirus software, and hard drive backup services.
You probably pay far more than you think.
After you have a list of your subscriptions, apply a simple litmus test: Do I actually use this subscription and does it make my life noticeably better?
4. Review Your Life Insurance Policies
Your life insurance requirements will evolve as you get older.
Someone with a young family likely needs more life insurance than an unmarried person living alone or a couple who have grown-up children and are approaching retirement.
Make sure that you have the right kind and level of cover in place.
Using life insurance to mitigate Inheritance Tax
5. Revisit Your Financial Goals
Did you set financial goals at the beginning of the year?
If so, now’s a great time to take a look at how far you’ve come, evaluate your progress, and adjust your course as needed.
The Bottom Line
As spring breathes new life into the world around us, it’s an ideal moment to do the same for our financial health.
The process of spring-cleaning your finances can be as refreshing and transformative as the season itself.
By organizing your documents, consolidating accounts, decluttering expenses, reassessing insurance needs, and revisiting goals, you set the stage for a more secure and prosperous future.
Remember, the small steps you take today can blossom into substantial rewards tomorrow.
