Jill on Money: Mid-Year Money

You may not be able to control inflation, economic trends, or the direction of financial markets, but there are many areas where a little attention can reap huge benefits.

The Biden administration is calling on businesses to end “junk fees” designed to confuse or deceive consumers.

These charges include bank overdraft and insufficient funds charges, credit card late fees, hotel and resort fees, airline baggage and change fees, service fees added to concert or sporting event fees, and cable television fees.

One way to combat these harmful expenses is to systematically review the categories of expenditure in which they typically occur. Doing it all at once is a lot of work, so focus on one each month.

Start with the most expensive areas, like banking, where you can often limit fees by consolidating accounts and using direct deposit.

With credit cards, higher interest rates can make it difficult to keep up if you have a balance, which makes eliminating all other fees even more important. Create automatic payments to card companies, even for lower amounts, so you can avoid late fees. It’s also a good idea for any recurring bills like rent and utilities.

For those with multiple credit cards, get rid of the one with the higher annual fee. Doing so may take a temporary hit to your credit score, but it may be worth it in the long run.

Next, check your cell phone bill to see if your current provider has a lower-rate plan, or if it makes sense to switch to a cheaper provider. Finally, check all streaming services and cancel subscriptions that you don’t really use.

More and more workers are changing jobs frequently, leaving behind large numbers of siled retirement accounts. Try to consolidate all similar accounts (i.e. all Roth accounts or all traditional accounts) into one place.

If you currently have a good workplace plan, you may be able to roll over your old account into it. Otherwise, you can simply choose the easiest place to navigate and transfer funds there. When you do, try to combine all of your after-tax brokerage accounts into one.

Consolidated accounts make it easier to monitor your entire portfolio and ensure your money is properly diversified, and can give you an idea of ​​whether you can ditch expensive managed mutual funds in favor of cheaper index funds.

Most retirement plans have a way to automatically increase your contribution levels. These “auto-escalation” features can help you slowly, methodically, and easily increase the amount of retirement savings each pay period.

The time to figure out what your policy is about is not after a serious event, but before it.

As a reminder, most standard homeowners insurance policies only cover structural and water damage in limited circumstances, such as a fallen tree knocking out a hole in the roof or breaking a window, allowing rain to fall indoors.

Most policies do not cover damage due to rising water unless you live in a designated flood zone and have insurance through the government’s National Flood Insurance Program.

What money would be in the middle of the year without me urging you to prepare a will, power of attorney, and health care proxy. If you do not want to hire a qualified estate attorney, there are many online options.