Episode 9 - Money Day Annual Review

This week, I’m going to talk about how to start planning out our annual review which I call Money Day.  I got this concept from the Get Rich Slowly Blog.  In short, it’s a day to set aside and take care of financial stuff.  Ours has evolved over the years, but we’ve been doing this for the past 10 years.  I’ll link to the article in the show notes.  I highly recommend checking it out because it does contain some great ideas which I won’t be covering here.

Aside from Christmas and Halloween, Money Day is my favorite day of the year!  I love to strategize and geek out about money stuff.  My wife on the other hand, well, she doesn’t get too excited.  Wine helps, but I try get everything prepped and ready so she can just help make decisions and move on.  A lot of great things have come out of money day though.  We started both of our IRAs, changed to better banks, started my son’s 529, saved for cars, planned out some great trips, and made some life-changing money moves for ourselves.  Without a doubt, this meeting has a large impact on our financial success each year.

Here’s the basic agenda for our money day every year:

1. Calculate our Net Worth – It’s good to get a check on where your’re at. My goal is to make sure our net worth rises every year.  We’ve been able to do this every year since we started tracking with one exception.  That year, we had a lot going on, moved, bought a car, put my wife through school, and the market took a pretty decent hit right before I calculated our net worth.
2. Rebalance investments – This might not be necessary depending on how you have things set up, but I do this every year regardless.
3. Plan Trips for the year: We look at what trips we want to take in the year.  For instance, if we have a wedding to go to, we’ll go ahead and plan that out.  The most important part to this step is to set money aside for all these trips.
4. Talk about and plan any large purchases coming up in the next year: Then we start setting aside money or a savings plan for these things.
5. Reset the Budget: I keep track of this on a spreadsheet and we update it at least every year.

We have additional items that we need to look at and decide every year as well.  Some topics of discussion have been things like:

1. Should we buy a Costco membership?
2. Do we rent or buy a camper (we rented, just in case you’re wondering. I did a quick cost analysis and it was actually cheaper to rent for the # of times we would go).

Here are some great things that have come from money day:

1. Setting up our IRAs
2. Transferring my IRA to a better company
3. Paying off debt
4. Putting my wife through school
5. Saving for having a baby
6. Taking some really fun family vacations

 

Keep in mind, you can do this any time you want.  You can have a money day more than once a year as well.  There are definitely times that we have had little “mini money days”.  The main thing is that you actually set time aside to make some positive change in your financial life.  Don’t hold onto stuff all year waiting to discuss on money day.  I keep a running list of topics for each year and add things to it.

This is a great time to get organized and also to plan and dream.  Make it fun!  If you have any things like this that you do, please share!  Send me a note.  I love to hear from you all!

 

Action Items:

1. Pick a day for Money Day. Make time to spend time on your finances.
2. Get a system to organize your financial life: App on your phone, spreadsheet, something.
3. Share the podcast and subscribe so we can complete this journey together!

 

Check out our Facebook group and connect with others on their journey to financial security and independence!

To contact me, please email [email protected].

Now go get started!

Before you go, please remember this information is for educational and informational purposes only.  Please seek tax, legal, or investment advice before making any decisions.

 

Links:

Money Day Article:

https://www.getrichslowly.org/money-day-your-personal-finance-holiday/