Check, Check....Can You Hear Me?

• Start with broad categories to begin organizing your potential checklist items. For personal finance, that’s things like Tax Planning, Estate Planning, Insurance, Charitable Giving, Cash Management, Investment Allocations, etc.
• Next, start asking yourself questions relative to these categories: Are there any tax strategies that I should be implementing before the end of the year? Are there any areas of my life in which I am potentially underinsured? Is there a more efficient and organized way to conduct my charitable giving? Is there an opportunity to reduce my borrowing costs?
• Then, begin bullet pointing your action items relative to the questions you asked and discussed with your advisor.
• Lastly, prioritize your list. Prioritizing should be based on two metrics – importance and difficulty. Ideally, you want to tackle the most important and impactful items first, but some of those items might be time-consuming, so you might want to knock off the easier to complete items first. There is nothing wrong with tackling the simpler obstacles first. This is a great way to get a quick win under your belt and build a little momentum.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• http://thoughtsonmoney.com
• http://thebahnsengroup.com