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The Personal-Finance Things-To-Do List
Yesterday’s New York Times carries a piece on the proliferation of life lists – all the things people want to do before they die. (Full disclosure: They employ my wife). I’m doing pretty well with my own list; I managed to sing with a pop star by the end of college, having blown my first chance in spectacular fashion.
In preparation for the launch of this blog, however, I created a smaller list – one solely focused on personal finance. These aren’t things I want to do before I die. My goals there are simple: Have the resources to quit full-time work by age 60 if I want to and never be a financial burden to my kids.
Instead, this list contains things that I need to reexamine or know I should be doing regularly. It’s so easy to blow them off though, often because it’s hard to know in advance precisely what they cost when I don’t get them done.
Writing them down here is a way to force myself to cross one item off each week or so, lest I be embarrassed in front of all of you. I’ll refer back to the list from time to time if knocking things off of it leads me to screw up in ways that might be illuminating for everyone else.
Here goes:
- Look at what our household is spending and on what (we have no budget)
- Switch Banks
- Try to get a debit card that only works at an ATM
- Get professional advice on our asset allocation
- Find a better place to park the cash portion of our taxable investment account
- Make mid-year 529 deposit
- Move Dow Jones 401(k) to Schwab account
- Rebalance 401(k) and other investment accounts
- Get access to my wife’s accounts so I can see them on the same Schwab page as mine (this turns out to be a magnificent pain, involving visits to notaries and whatnot – more on that soon)
- Reapply for life insurance (both of us) to see if we can get better rates
- Read auto insurance policy
- Read homeowners insurance policy
- Shop for new auto insurance policy
- Shop for new homeowners insurance policy
- Look into cheaper coverage for engagement and wedding rings
- Set up automated charitable contributions
- Re-sort file of 10-plus years of brokerage account statements
- Fill out the Merrill Lynch “If we die, here’s where our records are” pamphlet
- Get a will (pathetic, I know – we email my sister with arrangements when my wife and I travel without our daughter)
- Get my frequent-flier miles organized on a single page on the web
- Get a JetBlue credit card to keep points from expiring
- Get back in the check-credit-report-every-four-months routine
- Locate important condo documents
- Locate important car documents
- Buy fireproof safe and store those documents
- Upgrade to a childproof crosscut shredder
- Assemble emergency kit for apartment and include cash
- Sort and spend gift cards
- Put some money to work in the Prosper network
We were originally going to call this blog The Shoemaker’s Kids, after the old adage about the shoemaker’s kids walking around town with worn-through soles because the Shoemaker didn’t have any time to shod his own kids’ feet. So now you know which toes of mine are poking through.
What’s on your to-do-list?
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(5) Comments
Ron,
You mention you want to invest with Prosper. Can I ask why you would? To me it seems this is too risky - ie: someone turns to prosper to get a loan since they can’t get the money from a credit card (or the rate they would get from their card is too high). Why would/should I trust them if their bank feels they are a bad risk?
Hey Michael, thanks for the note
Many of the people on Prosper are seeking lower interest — they’re not there because they can’t get money from a bank or credit-card company at all.
It is higher risk — I wouldn’t mark this as “cash” in my asset allocation. The risk profile is proably more akin to stocks. The interesting — and sort of fun — part of this though, is that we just don’t know what the long-term returns will be over the life of these loans. It’s total frontiersmanship. Which means it probably shouldn’t more than 10% of anybody’s portfolio!
Thanks Ron,
I understand about the risk factor. I think for now I’ll stick with the stock market, which is something I understand (more or less).
Ron,
Are you familiar with Kiva.org? I think the concept is more of a social experiment than a way to make money, but what do you think?
I’m inspired, Ron. This takes guts to put yourself out there like this. And I’m SO GLAD to see one of the site’s self-evident truths to be that it’s NOT rude to talk about money. THANK YOU!!!
My own goals are simple (pay off debt, learn how to save, and spend money on things I want and will enjoy). I’m going to go further and post my bad habits and how I’m changing them to help realize these goals. I spent $1000 one month on just cabs, drinks, and eating out. That’s huge for me. Maybe $50 of that was sending the laundry to the laundromat. What an eye-opener. It hurts to think how much I spent on that. So here’s how I’m trying to change my habits to achieve my goals:
- Less eating out, more grocery shopping. Sounds obvious, but I always thought, “What a waste, I shouldn’t cook for just me, so I won’t bother” - and that leads me to spending nearly $200 a week on ordering/dining out.
- Disciplining my social activity so I’m not stuck in far-off neighborhoods at late hours, which encourages me to take a cab. Better to do one thing per weeknight that I enjoy instead of doing something every night at a moment’s notice (which includes event tickets, drinks, maybe dinner out, etc. etc.).
- On the heels of that, learning to go home at a reasonable hour and take the subway, which I’ve already got the friggin’ Metrocard for!
- Each month, before I even tear open my paystub, I deposit something in my savings account, no matter how little, no matter what big expense I have on the horizon.
- Less drinking in bars! One cocktail costs as much as a six-pack of anything at the store. I can drink soda and save the extra cash for something fun (skiing this winter, rockwall climbs, whatever else floats my boat).
And now, my to-do list:
- investigate savings vehicles (ie, savings accounts with better returns);
- research lower-APR credit cards with no-fees;
- think REALISTICALLY about buying real estate (not in the next few years);
- combine and organize 401k and 403b accounts;
- consider what to do with the Roth IRA I haven’t deposited to since 2002;
- file and organize bank statements.