Happy New Year, everybody!
Today’s post is going to be longer than a normal Summary Sunday because I’m going to bring you a bunch of information to wrap up 2017 and start 2018 on a good financial path. That means that not only am I recommending some other posts (like normal), I’m also going to talk a bit about what I’m doing this holiday weekend. Let’s get started.
What You Need To Do With Your Rewards & Cards Before Year-End
Bald Thoughts – December 29, 2017
This is my first year where I’ve gotten into credit card churning. There is a whole lot more going on than I am used to! Luckily Bald Thoughts put this post out to help me sort through some tasks.
I’m checking out his recommendation to use StatusMatcher. I don’t know whether it will do anything for me, but I’m willing to spend an hour figuring it out.
I also *just* used up my AMEX Platinum airline fee credit for 2017 – I hope. I had assigned United as my airline for this credit and as discussed previously I’d planned to buy eGift Certificates. $200 in free travel money! Unfortunately (and unbeknownst to me until this week because I put this off too long) United has “temporarily” taken down their portal for doing so…”temporarily” meaning 3+ months. However, thanks to a very friendly AMEX customer service agent I was able to switch my airline to Delta today (normally you can only switch in January). I purchased some e-certs through Delta. Now I just have to hope it gets credited as a 2017 transaction…wish me luck. If all else fails, hey…it’s gift certificates so I didn’t lose any money.
The Money Binder: How To Prepare Your Finances For Your Death
DoughRoller – May 7, 2017
This is a task I’ve been putting off for too long, so I am committing to completing it in 2018. I shall call it the ICE binder since theoretically it might be needed well before death. ICE stands for In Case of Emergency.
There are other guides out there that teach you how to create such a binder in far greater detail, so if that’s what you are looking for you can do a search online to find one you like. What I like about this post is that it’s not overwhelming. I’ve heard there is a 53-page guide to creating such a binder – that seems overwhelming for a first hack. This Money Binder seems easy enough to start with!
Start 2018 With A New Strategy For Your Taxes
Washington Post – December 26, 2017
Keeping with last week’s theme of taxes, check out this post from Michelle Singletary that highlights some things you should be thinking about when looking at your 2018 finances. How will you best arrange your money to optimize the new tax plan? Do you need to change your withholdings? Edit your contributions to Traditional or Roth retirement accounts?
My End Of Year/New Year Tasks
Each year, I spend December 31st/January 1st finalizing a few things. Some of these tasks were completed in the last few weeks, but this is when I tie everything together to make sure I’m ready for the new year. I’m not going to go into great detail, but this is what I’ve been working on lately.
My 2017 Year In Review Tasks
- Reconcile my budget for the last time (I do this every 2-4 weeks)
- Calculate my savings rate for the year
- Calculate my net worth (I only do this once per year)
- Spend any remaining charitable contribution funds
- I contribute to charity in two ways. First, through the Combined Federal Campaign. That is a set monthly amount taken out of my paycheck before I see it. This way I know I am giving a set minimum each month.
- I also set aside money from my paycheck each month to give to pop up events/organizations – for instance, Hurricane Harvey. At the end of the year, I assess whether to roll over any remaining funds into the following year, or donate it now. Since the new tax plan doesn’t incentivize giving, it makes more sense for me to donate as much as I can now. I may still not meet the minimum threshold to itemize my 2017 taxes, but there is no incentive to wait and there are plenty of people who could use the money now.
I won’t actually find out how my investments did (the return) for several weeks yet, because it can take awhile for the companies to calculate that. I can look at how the investment did as a whole, but that doesn’t take into account when I purchased shares so it isn’t directly applicable to my situation. I’ll wait patiently since it’s not going to change anything.
My 2018 Financial Planning Process
- Establish my 2018 financial goals
- Determine how much I’ll put towards Saving/Investing (tax-advantaged and taxable accounts) (complete)
- Determine whether to make mortgage early principal payments (I will either do this or buy another property…TBD) (not complete)
- Set up my charitable giving through the Combined Federal Campaign (complete)
- Determine how much I will donate outside the CFC (complete)
- Create my In Case of Emergency binder (not complete)
- Establish my 2018 financial plan
- Write out my yearly budget (complete)
- Make changes to investment allocations, if needed (complete)
- Make changes to tax-advantaged contributions (Traditional vs Roth), if needed (complete)
- Increase my contributions to taxable accounts (not complete)
- Examine the 2018 tax rules to figure out my tax optimization plan (not complete, but in process)
- Budget out my travel. Travel is important to me! (budgeting done for the first trip. Still need to figure out the rest)
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