Family Finances: A Half Hour Is All You Need for These Financial Moves

Family finances (phloxii/Shutterstock)

By Lisa Gerstner and Rivan V. Stinson From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance

It doesn’t take a lot of time to improve your finances.

Here are three things you can do, each taking about a half hour.

• Check Your Credit Reports

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—the three major credit bureaus—allowed weekly free downloads of your credit reports. The weekly downloads have been extended through Dec. 31.

Go to www.annualcreditreport.com and check your report from each credit bureau to make sure your address is correct and that information about lenders and your payment history is accurate for all of your accounts. For example, each entry should show when you’ve paid your bills and whether the payments were on time. If you find an error, dispute it using the bureaus’ online dispute forms.

• Link to a Budgeting App

Tracking expenses will give you a better idea of where to trim spending so you can save more. And even if your savings are on target, monitoring spending and saving can give you a sense of control over your finances and satisfaction as your net worth grows.

The free Mint app is a longtime favorite for keeping an eye on cash flow and setting spending limits. You can connect Mint to your bank, credit card, loan, investment and retirement accounts for automatic updates on your transactions and balances.

Goodbudget mimics the envelope method of budgeting, allowing you to create virtual envelopes dedicated to various budget categories—one for groceries, one for gas and so on—and set aside money for each expense up front (the basic version is free; the Plus version charges $8 a month to create an unlimited number of envelopes and connect unlimited financial accounts).

Personal Capital mostly focuses on investments, with tools that provide a detailed look at your portfolio’s asset allocation, performance of holdings and balance changes. But you can also link to your credit card and bank accounts to track your cash flow and net worth.

• Set Up an Online Social Security Account

At www.ssa.gov/myaccount, you can sign up for an account with the Social Security Administration and use it to review your Social Security statement, which shows estimates—based on your earnings to date—of how much your monthly retirement benefit will be depending on the age at which you start benefits.

Check your earnings record too. If you find a mismatch between Social Security’s listing of your earnings and your own tax records, contact the Social Security Administration to rectify it.

Another good reason to create an account now: If you don’t have one, an identity thief who gets ahold of your Social Security number could use it to create an account in your name and claim your benefits.

(Lisa Gerstner is a contributing editor and Rivan V. Stinson is a staff writer at Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. For more on this and similar money topics, visit Kiplinger.com.)

©2022 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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