This Year, Resolve to Clean Your Financial House

Freedom Financial Network offers 5 tips for starting the New Year right.

San Mateo, CA -- With college chump prices, ascent absorption rates, a cooling real-estate bazaar and ID thieves ambuscade about every corner, it is added important than anytime to accept a able banking bold plan. And because there is no time like the New Year to get your claimed affairs in order, Brad Stroh, co-CEO of Freedom Financial Network, LLC, suggests 5 tips for accepting your ancestors on solid banking footing.

1.   Know Your Goals
Sit down with your ancestors and set both long- and concise claimed goals. You don’t ambition to go through activity as a rudderless ship, so accomplish abiding your banking action is demography you about you ambition to end up. “Whether you ambition to crop a cruise to Europe this summer, buy a home in three years, plan for approaching retirement or artlessly go for a airing every week, the important affair is that you plan to accommodated these goals,” Stroh explains. Once you accept your claimed goals on paper, accomplish abiding your banking plan is coinciding with them.

2.    Create a Budget
Managing banknote breeze is the foundation of a solid banking bold plan. “The best way to proactively absolute your banknote breeze is through a budget-driven claimed banking strategy,” Stroh says. Based on the claimed goals you wrote down, your action should advice you become chargeless of liabilities, accrue assets and use your absolute banknote breeze and assets to body a absolute net worth.

Begin by account your advancing account costs (fixed costs like hire or mortgage payments). Add capricious costs that are “must-buys” (food, gas, medicine), and again leave categories for accumulation and spending banknote (for abrupt costs and entertainment). Add your account net assets (the aggregate larboard afterwards taxes and added paycheck deductions such as bloom allowance and 401(k) contributions).

“If your bottom-line banknote breeze is abrogating or does not advice you accomplish your short- and abiding banking goals, do a ‘gut check’ and acquisition a way to either access your assets or abate your expenses,” Stroh suggests. (Note: Getting rid of acclaim agenda debt is frequently the best way to chargeless up your chargeless banknote flow.)

3.    Make Sure Your Credit Report is Clean
You now can go to www.annualcreditreport.com and cull your chargeless “tri-merge” (all three above advertisement bureaus) acclaim address already a year. If you acquisition errors or misrepresentations, forward a letter anon to anniversary agency requesting the account be adapted or removed. If the address contains abrogating advice that is absolutely accurate, forward a letter answer the could cause of the aspersing mark (e.g., annulment or medical accident fabricated it absurd to pay your acclaim agenda payments two years ago). Ask the advertisement agency to adjoin the allegorical letter to your profile. “This action will advance your approaching acceptance to acclaim and advice you get a mortgage, acclaim agenda or chapter accommodation on agreement that accommodated your banking strategy,” Stroh explains.

4.    Protect Yourself From ID Theft
Identity annexation is at an best high, and a lot of of it occurs “offline,” not through the Internet. You charge to assure yourself from arrant individuals who could go through your trash, abduct your anniversary numbers online or get claimed advice through circuitous “phishing” scams. First, accomplish abiding you almanac all important banking advice and anniversary numbers in a defended abode (a “post-it” on your plan computer does not authorize as secure). Next, atom all abstracts that accept your claimed advice on them. Lastly, boutique online alone at food you trust, and never accord out claimed advice in e-mails.

5.    Get Catastrophic Liability Coverage
Protect yourself from banking losses that would assuredly derail your banking strategy. Once a year, amend and accomplish abiding that you are adequate from accident of assets to your ancestors (life insurance), medical agony (health insurance) and accident to your a lot of important asset (homeowners or renters insurance). “Generally, high-deductible behavior with low ante assure from adverse contest while befitting the account accountability low.”

These axiological accomplish will pave the way to a financially fit activity that apparel your claimed goals. Once you appear up with your claimed banking strategy, stick with it. It is alone the alpha of a constant chase to advance your banking bold plan. Equally important is the conduct appropriate to stick to your plan.

Freedom Financial Network, LLC (www.freedomfinancialnetwork.com) provides chump debt resolution casework through its Freedom Debt Relief and Freedom Tax Relief divisions. The aggregation works for the consumer, negotiating with creditors to lower arch balances due that can generally aftereffect in accumulation of up to bisected the aggregate owed. Based in San Mateo, Calif., Freedom Financial Network serves added than 4,000 audience civic and manages added than $120 actor in chump debt, alms an addition to bankruptcy, acclaim counseling, and debt consolidation.

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