An article on MSN Money proposes an interesting idea: taking a personal day from work to fix your finances. The concept is a good one: if you take a single day to dedicate to fixing your finances you’ll finally get those pesky items off your to do list and ultimately profit from the time your spent. Here are the items the article suggests for your personal day of financial bliss:

1. Open a high-rate savings account
2. Start tracking your spending
3. Get a better rate on your credit card
4. Get a better rewards credit card
5. Roll over your old 401k plans
6. Rebalance your 401k
7. Raise your insurance deductibles
8. Shop your insurance policies
9. Set up a 529 plan for your kids
10. Draft a will

These are all excellent suggestions, but is it really practical for most people to take a day off of work to take care of these things? After all, many salaried people only get two weeks of vacation a year. For those who are hourly, taking a personal day is a direct hit to their financial position since if you don’t work the hours you don’t get paid for them.

The good thing is that you probably don’t have to take a personal day. Many of these items you could do in the evening or on weekends thanks to the internet. Most of the research you need to do these things effectively can be done anytime day or night. In most cases you can even open the new accounts online. Even shopping your insurance or setting up a new 529 plan can be done outside of business hours.

For the few things you may have to do during business hours, try using your lunch break to take care of these. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll be able to accomplish in an hour if you’ve done your homework beforehand.

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Posted in Tips by BillyOceansEleven No Comments Yet