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" No one size fits all with financial planning. Based on income, lifestyle and overall needs, the perfect financial plan varies from person to person. But being able to outline your status is essential to a financially organized life, so evaluating (and then re-evaluating) your monetary accounts is important to do at least every six months. &amp;quot;An honest evaluation of where you stand in regards to your net worth, interest rates you&amp;#039;re paying on debt, insurance coverage, taxes, investments and more is the foundation on which to build your financial future,&amp;quot; says Mike McCoy, CEO of The SpendSmart Payments Company. &amp;quot;That assessment also provides you with the tools and confidence to make truly informed decisions so you can maximize your financial satisfaction and health.&amp;quot; Here are five questions to ask yourself. Question 1: Where is your money going? When it comes to updating the way you manage your finances, you first need to identify what you&amp;#039;re spending your money on now and see if you could make some adjustments. Review your credit card and bank statements to determine your expenditures over the last three months. Are you mainly putting money toward bills and other necessities? Or are you overspending on dining out, entertainment and other luxury items? Question 2: Where should it be going? Once you see where your money is going, decide where you could make changes to your budget. Though this could mean buying fewer things you don&amp;#039;t necessarily need (e.g. clothes and expensive food), consider items where you could be getting better deals. For example, look at your utility bills. Cable, wireless and other utility providers often advertise new promotional deals that will lower your monthly bill payment if you switch to that provider. And because you&amp;#039;re a new customer, the services offered are usually premium packages. DIRECTV&amp;#039;s Triple Savings Event, for example, allows customers to lock in three years of savings: You can save $33 a month in your first year as a customer, and $10 a month in your second and third years. The other way to save on bills? Search for hidden fees. Opt for credit cards with no annual fee and a low APR so you&amp;#039;re not throwing money away on interest over a long period of time. Question 3: Are you working toward becoming debt free? The answer to this should always be yes, so if you don&amp;#039;t have a get-out-of-debt plan, create one now. If you&amp;#039;ve racked up a substantial amount of credit card debt over the years, try to pay more than the minimum monthly amount due so that you avoid paying outrageous interest charges. If you can&amp;#039;t pay more than the minimum, make sure to at least pay the minimum on time by signing up for a bill reminder and account management service, such as Manilla.com, which will automatically send you text and email reminders to pay your bills. Question 4: What are you saving for? It&amp;#039;s essential to think about your savings goals to determine if you&amp;#039;re saving enough. Divide your goals into short-term and long-term planning. Summer vacation and a new car, for instance, are short-term savings goals, whereas retirement, a child&amp;#039;s college fund or a new home are long-term targets. Also, review your emergency fund, which is a special savings account designed to act as a back-up plan in the unfortunate event of an emergency, such as a natural disaster or unforeseen medical expenses. If you haven&amp;#039;t created one up until this point, now is the time to start. Question 5: Could you be saving more? To determine how much you need to be saving each month, take the total amount you&amp;#039;ll need and divide it by the number of years by which you&amp;#039;d like to have it. Divide that number by 12, and you&amp;#039;ll end up with the amount you need to be saving each month. (Example: If you&amp;#039;re saving $10,000 for a car and you&amp;#039;d like to reach your goal in two years, the formula would be: $10,000 / 2 years = $5,000 per year / 12 months = approximately $417 saved per month.) Sarah Kaufman is the editor-in-chief of the Manilla Blog at Manilla.com, the leading, free and secure service that helps you simplify and organize your daily life. Using just one password, Manilla lets you manage your finances, utilities, daily deals, travel and rewards programs, Netflix and magazine subscriptions, and more\u2014all through Manilla.com or the top-rated iOS and mobile apps. Sarah is also a regular contributor to Yahoo! Finance, Good Housekeeping, The Motley Fool, The Jane Dough and other major sites. For more tips on budgeting money and great ways to save, visit the Manilla Blog. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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