Caught this by another financial advocate/author out there – Tony Steuer.

A calendar of the “most important” financial items to cross off every month:

What do you think?

• January: Review your budget and cash flow as well as your net worth statement (this lets you see how you did last year and if you want to make any changes for the new year)
• February: Organize tax documents and receipts!
• March: Review your investments and allocations, making sure you are still on track for major goals such as retirement savings
• April: File federal and state income tax returns
• May: Order credit reports (J$: easy and free to do here, btw)
• June: Review retirement plan contributions and projections to see if you are on target
• July: Hold a family financial meeting / Review old goals and set new ones
• August: Review estate plan and estate planning documents to make sure they are current (this includes wills, trusts, and advance directives)
• September: Review insurance policies to prep for November by making sure coverage still meets your needs and preparing to adjust accordingly
• October: Review your financial first aid kit
• November: Open enrollment for group employee benefits and Individual Health Insurance begins – sign up to what you determined you need back in September
• December: Wrap up any loose ends from your financial year

My quick thoughts:

#1. LOVE that it’s just *one* action item every month!! Anyone can do that!

#2. I also kinda love that it has nothing to do with earning more or cutting back expenses, and rather focuses on the *overall picture* and organization. Which will then lead to ways to speed up your goals by going out and earning more/cutting back.

#3. January is my favorite :) And smart to put in the #1 slot before you lose steam and give up on your NY’s Resolutions!

#4. Like the idea of doing a mid-year checkup/review of the state of affairs

#5. “Financial first aid kit” – Not exactly sure what goes in there, but love the idea of having one… Similar to the In Case of Emergency Binder perhaps?

#6. You can easily add all these into your calendar system to have pop up each month to remind you. And then repeated for each continual year as well.

Overall: I like it! And a much better plan than having no plan at all, haha… Even if you set up the reminders and ignore them, at least it’ll get you to STOP and THINK for a hot minute about your $$$! Which is all we can ask for sometimes in our busy lives ;)

What would you guys add to this calendar? Does anyone already rock one of their own?

You can learn more about this on Tony’s site (TonySteuer.com), as well as his latest book on the subject: Get Ready!: A Step-by-Step Planner for Maintaining Your Financial First Aid Kit

I also noticed he has a Financial Preparedness Assessment on his site too that I couldn’t help myself but to take, haha… It’s about 25 questions long, and if you enter your email in the end (I didn’t) it’ll spit you out a roadmap and checklist to follow.

36 more days to go until the New Year!! Still plenty of time to get your ass-ets in order! ;)

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