Time to Evaluate your Savings and Spending

Typically, by now most people have either given up or revised their New Years Resolutions. Now that 2 months of 2014 is in the books. Itʻs a good time to evaluate how you are doing with your financial goals. Take this quick assessment to see how you are doing so far in regards to saving and spending:

1. Savings

A. How much have you saved so far this year? 

     Are you participating in the 52 Weeks Savings Challenge? Do you have a portion of you paycheck automatically deposited into a savings account? Do you put your extra change in a piggy bank or jar at the end of the day? No matter what you are doing to save money, keep up with it! Even if you only save $1.00 a day, youʻll have $365 more at the end of the year. 

B. Have you had to dip into your savings this year? What was it for? 

     Did a situation occur that made you have to use some of the money you saved? Was it that one pair of shoes that you had to have? Was it an emergency that came up and you didnʻt have enough in your checkings account to cover it? If it was an emergency, consider funding or using your Emergency Fund for these types of situations. 

C. Is your current saving plans working for you? Should you decrease your plan? Are you able to increase your savings? 

     Is the amount of money you are currently putting away for savings putting a strain on paying your bills? Consider, decreasing the amount. Although you should save or as they say "pay yourself first" you want to make sure you donʻt fall behind on your bills or have any late payments. If you end up with extra money at the end of the month and all your bills/expenses are paid in full, consider increasing your savings amount.

2. Spending

A. How many times have you overspent in the past 2 months? 

     Have you over-drafted at all this year? Was it an oversight on your part? Did you know that you were going to have to have an overdraft? To prevent overdrafts, create a budget and stick to it. Also, manage your bank accounts regularly. 

B. Have you tried an envelope system to control your spending? 

      An envelope system helps you to stay on budget. You put cash for your different spending categories. Once you have spent all the cash in the envelope, that is all you have to spend, until you refill your envelopes (weekly, bi-weekly or monthly). 

C. How many large purchases have you made so far this year? 

     How many purchases have you made over $500.00? Were they necessary purchases? Did you budget them in to your finances? Large purchases are inevitable, so make sure you have a plan to save for or work those purchases into your budget. 

If you could use improvement in any or all of these areas, choose 1 area to focus on during the month of March. Use these guidelines at the end of each month to help you make strides toward financial success.