Audit and cleanse
A fall financial cleanse could get your spending back on track
If summer is a season of spontaneity, then fall offers a counterpoint: It’s a chance to get back on schedule and on budget.
“Summer, with travel and no school, tends to be a really spendy time. The fall is a nice reset,” says Ashley Feinstein Gerstley, a certified financial planner and author of “The 30-Day Money Cleanse.”
Here’s a guide to a fall financial cleanse that could help get your budget on track for the rest of the year:
1 Start with a look back Nate Hoskin, a certified financial planner at Brightside, says the first step to a fall financial cleanse is to look backward, starting with your New Year’s goals. He suggests checking on progress toward resolutions set in January so you can make any needed adjustments.
Then, Hoskin says, initiate what he calls a “financial audit,” which means tracking all of your spending over the last couple of months by poring over credit card and bank statements. From there, you can see what unexpected expenses popped up or why it has been so hard to save.
2 Try a budget If you don’t yet follow a budget to help track spending, then the fall is a great time to give one a try, says Ashley Lapato, a financial expert on TikTok who posts as @TheOrganizedWallet and is a spokesperson for the budgeting app YNAB.
“I always think the first step is a zero-based budget,” she says, which means every dollar is accounted for, including money set aside for savings and any debt payments.
“It forces you to confront spending decisions and to get really clear about financial priorities,” she says, because you comb through every little bit of spending.
3 Prioritize paying off debt Stuart Boxenbaum, president of Statewide Financial Group, a financial advisory firm, says that with interest rates rising, this fall is also a great time to aggressively pay off high-interest or variable-rate debt, such as credit card debt.
“Before you sock away other money into savings, pay off high-interest debt — if you’re paying 18% or higher on a credit card, then it’s a no-brainer. Pay off the debt first,” he says.
This article was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. Want to suggest a personal finance topic that Quick Fix can address? Email apmoney@ap.org