Yes, another year has already begun and there is a raft of financial stuff you should be thinking about (right now), for the coming financial new year.
My Personal Opinion On Resolutions
What kind of things? You know my great love for lists, so let’s start the year with one:
- You will have more TFSA room, so you should be able to deposit more money into yourTFSA. This year your can add $5500 more to it, and the sooner you put it in, the sooner it has a chance to grow as well.
- If you are adding new funds to your TFSA and you are using a Couch Potato Index portfolio, or you have specific percentages by sector, now might be a good time to use these extra funds to bring the portfolio back into balance too.
- Rebalance your portfolios might be a good idea overall, given the cogitations and undulations of the markets over the past little while, now is the time to “take profits” and “take advantage of good prices” if you will allow me those car salesman-ish type expressions.
- Check over your current insurance coverage. You need to know when all your insurance comes due, how much you are paying, whether the rates have gone up and maybe write it all down (just in case). You don’t want to be searching for insurance coverage after a major incident. Now might be the time to start thinking about shopping around for better rates as well (before you are about to renew).
- An excellent example is if you are turning 50 this year, now is the time to start shopping around for better term insurance rates, and maybe time to start thinking about disability insurance as well.
- Note there is a handy life insurance quote tool on the right side of this —> give it a whirl.
- Expecting a new child this year? Have one and haven’t started their RESP yet? Start now, in the name of Sky Rocketing Tuition rates, start now, or you are dooming your child to a huge student debt load (or you can not give a flying hoot and let them pay for it themselves, take your choice).
- It’s RRSP time, how do I know? It’s a trick question, it is always RRSP time (and TFSA time for that matter). Before the insanity of February, go put some money in your RRSP now, and give it a month head start on growth.
How to Start?
How is that financial plan going? Now is the time to have a look at it, and see if you need to change it for this year, or just keep cruising along. It didn’t work for you at all last year? Time to start a new plan, try some new ideas, and see if they work better for you. You don’t have a plan? Excellent time to start a new financial plan (just like RRSP time, financial planning time is right now).
New year, new plan, and let’s get going on this.
Good reminder, a few of them like TFSA and rebalancing of the portfolio I remembered but the one I didn’t think about was insurance. Brilliant idea to review this.