Perform A New Year Financial Fitness Checkup And Save!

The beginning of a new year is when people frequently start setting goals and making resolutions for themselves.  By far, the most common new year’s resolution is to lose weight, but what about your financial fitness?  The new year is also a good time to make a fresh start with your personal finances (check out my goals for 2010).

For most people, their mortgage payment is the highest household bill, followed closely by their car payment.  While there isn’t much you can easily do about what you pay for rent or your mortgage (short of refinancing your mortgage, which has its own pitfalls), there are a number of things you can do to reduce your car expenses and other expenses which will help you save more of your hard earned cash.

Double Check Your Budget

Start out by creating a list of everything you pay out each month compared to how much money you earn each month.  See if there are any expenses on your list that can be eliminated or reduced.  You probably have some recurring memberships and subscriptions that you aren’t making good use of that can be canceled to offer you some instant monthly savings.

Car Insurance Policies

One area that you may have overlooked as a good place to reduce your expenses is your auto insurance policy.  Do you have car rental insurance coverage through your car insurance policy and also through another program, such as OnStar?  You only need the coverage once (if at all), so take a close look at what you’re paying for elsewhere to determine what you can change or remove about your auto insurance policy.  Also, at least once per year, get quotes for identical insurance with other insurance companies (such as Allstate or an online quote engine such as Netquote to make sure you’re not overpaying for the coverage you have.

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Consider A Lease Transfer

If you’ve got a car lease you don’t want or can’t afford any more, consider changing it using a service like Swapalease.com.  The experts here can help you understand your options and rid yourself of one of your monthly financial obligations as cost-effectively as possible.

Simplify And Pay Online

Are you still buying and writing checks to pay your bills?  You can make things easier by switching to online bill paying.  Not only will you save on the cost of paper checks, but you can set everything up to pay automatically if you want, which eliminates late fees for payments that are mailed a day or two too late to make the deadline.