This morning it dawned on me that while Quarterly Personal Financial Reports are very important as a communication tool, the most important report you can create is a Yearly breakdown of your Personal Finances for your spouse and who(m)ever else you want to communicate this information to.
Yearly Personal Finance Report
You need to think what exactly needs to be in this report, because it is easy to “kitchen sink” the report and put way too much information in it, so that your spouse becomes confused and/or loses interest in the message you are sending.
The advantage you have if you have done quarterly reports, you already know what is going on, but summing up the year may take a little more work on your part and some of the more interesting things you could show in this report would be:
- The progress you have made paying down your large debts like:
- Your Mortgage
- Automobile Loans
- Student Loans
- Credit Card debt
- How your retirement savings have grown over the year
- How much money you have saved in your “Vacation account”
- How you have done compared to your start of year Personal Financial Goals
The final point I think is the most important, because with the End of one Year, you have the beginning of another, and with your Year End report, you should include your Goals for your Personal Finances in the coming year as well. If the goal is more specific the easier it is to figure out whether you have succeeded or not, so remember that point.
