An 8-Point Financial Health Day Checklist

1.Check your bank account statements. It’s very easy to set subscription services and bill payments up for automatic deduction from our chequing accounts, then just forget them entirely – hence the phrase, “set it and forget it!” That’s actually the point, you might think. Financial Health Day is the day to take a half hour and just review your chequing account statements from the last couple of months, line by line, looking for any subscriptions you no longer want or need. Then cancel them! Common ones include cable, app and magazine subscriptions. 1.Check your bank account statements. It’s very easy to set subscription services and bill payments up for automatic deduction from our chequing accounts, then just forget them entirely – hence the phrase, “set it and forget it!” That’s actually the point, you might think. Financial Health Day is the day to take a half hour and just review your chequing account statements from the last couple of months, line by line, looking for any subscriptions you no longer want or need. Then cancel them! Common ones include cable, app and magazine subscriptions.

2.Check your mortgage interest rate. Just because today’s interest rates are lower doesn’t necessarily mean that every homeowner with a mortgage rate over 4 percent should refinance! Refinancing your home loan can cost money, and it definitely extends the life of your mortgage (unless you make an intentional, strict plan to pay it off early). Talk with your financial planner and mortgage professional to do the math and see whether you should consider refinancing your home loan. 2.Check your mortgage interest rate. Just because today’s interest rates are lower doesn’t necessarily mean that every homeowner with a mortgage rate over 4 percent should refinance! Refinancing your home loan can cost money, and it definitely extends the life of your mortgage (unless you make an intentional, strict plan to pay it off early). Talk with your financial planner and mortgage professional to do the math and see whether you should consider refinancing your home loan.

3.Check your PMI. If you put less than a 20 percent down payment into your home when you bought it, you were likely required by your lender to have Mortgage Insurance (PMI) policy. PMI insurance that protects your lender in the event you default on your mortgage – is not cheap. It can add hundreds of dollars to your monthly mortgage payment. Maybe consider a larger down payment if possible.

4.Check your insurance. Gather up your homeowner’s and other insurance statements, or call your agent(s) up and ask for a review. What you want to do is make sure that (a) you’re appropriately insured for your exposure, and (b) you aren’t paying more than you need to. Talk with your insurance agent and your financial planner, if you have one, to sort these matters out, and don’t be afraid to shop around.

5.Check your phone, cable and internet bills. 5.Check your phone, cable and internet bills.

6.Check your savings. Do you have an automatic savings plan in place? If not, Financial Health Day is a great day to set that up with your bank. If you do, it’s the right time to do a gut check: would it hurt you to save an extra $50, $100 or $200 a month? If you can afford to, tweak your savings on Financial Health Day.

7.Check your credit. Pull your own credit reports from all the credit bureaus. Scan the reports for any inaccuracies and any delinquencies that should have aged off your report but have not (7 years for most, 10 years for bankruptcies). Then, initiate disputes for any of these things you find. This can take some time, but Financial Health Day is the perfect opportunity to assertively manage your credit before you’re in refinance or home buying crunch-time.

8.Check your debt. Monitor all of your debt – from your mortgage, to your consumer debt to your student and auto loans – and put a plan in place for getting rid of as much of it as you can, as soon as you can. Can you afford to make an extra payment toward your mortgage? Can you pay that credit card off? As you’ve worked through the rest of your finances, you have likely ‘found’ money, which you’ll now be saving and can redirect toward the very worthy aim of debt elimination. But if all you can do is make a modest extra payment toward these things on your actual Financial Health Day itself, you’ll still end the day a little further ahead than you were when you got started.

What are tips can you add to this list? Tell us below.

Randy Bett Investment Realtor/Author/Investor Real Estate Professionals Inc. Better Group Real Estate Crowchild Trail NW Calgary, AB T3B 4Z1 Phone: Ext:1 Fax: Toll Free fax:

Randy Bett