Febreze® Your Finances This Spring

The first official day of spring is in a few days. Here in Kentucky we will welcome spring with open arms!

Spring is also the time when I think of warmer weather (wishful thinking), opening the windows and doing some cleaning. Spring also is a good time to do a little freshening of your finances.

This will be a different sort of article about spring cleaning of your finances. I want to focus on some of the not so obvious things. Items that you always think about doing, but may not always get around to.

So here’s how to Febreze® your finances this spring:

Clean out your purse or wallet. About two years ago, I went very minimalist with my wallet. I forced myself to only carry five cards and cash (that was all that would fit in my wallet). It also forced me to deal with all the paper that entered my pocket. It also made me choose where to put those pesky rewards key chains that every store has now. Take the time to clean out your purse or wallet and decide if you really need to keep that piece of paper or credit card with you at all times. That might just keep you from making a few impulse buys along the way, and freshen up your wallet or purse!

Change your financial passwords. I’ve written about this recently. With all the financial breaches lately, this would be a good time to change your financial passwords. Some sites suggest that you do this as often as every 90 days. I usually change the batteries in my smoke detectors during the Daylight Savings times, so that could be a trigger to get you to remember to change passwords every six months!

Go paperless. I’m really trying to go paperless myself. I’m concentrating on using Evernote to store most of my paper. I still have a little anxiety about not keeping paper though. I worry that I will need that one piece. By going paperless, you don’t have to keep all those medical bills, receipts and documents. You can put them in a secure location digitally and access them at anytime on any device. It will eliminate physical clutter. It also has eliminated my mental clutter with physical paper. It’s quite liberating actually.

Check your credit report. You probably should do this frequently, but it changes all the time. I would recommend spring for this. Some credit cards like Discover, now print your credit score on your monthly statement. That way you can see if you have any unusual changes lately.

Check your paycheck tax withholding. Now that it’s tax time, you may want to check your tax withholding. If you received a large refund, you should adjust the withholding and use the new-found funds to add to your retirement plan. Why allow the government to hold on to it for 12 months? Another reason to change withholding is you have had another child or a child has gone out on their own.

So that’s how you apply a little scent freshening to your finances this spring. If you just do a few of these, you’ll feel much better, and your finances with thank you. It will keep you organized, focused and uncluttered. If you liked my article, please subscribe right here for FREE!I’ll have my virtual paperboy toss my articles to your inbox every Friday.

Febreze® is a registered product of Proctor & Gamble