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It’s “Money Monday.” The last Monday of the last month of the year is a great reminder to take stock of where we are financially. Here are some tips to help you use Money Monday to your advantage!

Today is a good day to:

1. Request your free copy of your credit report from the credit reporting agencies. Contrary to what the credit report commercials may say - you don’t have to pay for their service or be charged for a 3-in-1 report. You can just mail a letter to each of the credit reporting agencies and have them mail you your one free yearly report.
2. Check your interest rates & fees. Check with your bank, credit companies, etc to find out what rate you’re paying or being paid for using their services. Ask if they can do better. Really, they may give you a lower APR or up the interest you are earning, just for asking.
3. Collect your receipts for the year. Go over how much you’ve spent on what, and check to see if certain expenses are tax-deductible or qualify for a tax-credit. Ask your accountant or tax professional about often overlooked items that you should watch for.
4. Set your budget - if you haven’t already done so - for your Holiday Gifting. Set how much money you will be spending total. Then list the people and charities that you want to give to. Set them in order of importance. Take out just enough cash to cover your budget, so you’re not paying interest on the gifts you give. Search the internet and call around for the best prices on what you want to buy. If you run out of money, which you shouldn’t, the people and charities at the bottom of the list will just have to wait. The people that you care about and would want to give gifts to, probably wouldn’t want you to pay double for what you give them - they’d probably graciously wait, rather than make you pay interest on their gift. If they don’t care enough about you to wait - why do you care about putting yourself in debt to give them a gift?

Well, there you have it - aside from taking care of my clients and articles today - this is what I’ll be doing. Feel free to join me in Money Monday!