Enjoy Your Summer While Staying Financially On Track
July 22, 2016
Summer has been upon us for a full month now and between planned trips, the kids off to camp and getting out to enjoy the nice weather, summer months can really take a toll on your financial discipline. Try following our tips to help keep you on track this summer. Just because the summer months are a time for us to be lazy, doesn’t mean it’s also a time for us to get lazy about our finances.
- Watch Vacation Spending:
Many families save much of the year for their summer vacation. Once you get into a vacation mindset, though, it is easy to overspend without even realizing it. And it’s not even just vacations, since the warm weather and down time get you and your family out of the house more, you naturally may spend more money than you were likely to spend during the cooler months. Try grilling at home more and carefully planning your spending for beach outings and boardwalk trips so you can be sure to keep the summer’s overspending from spilling into your fall budget.
- Review Your Portfolio
Though the markets stay in full swing all summer, investing volume usually does go down and movements often slow. This gives you a chance to review your portfolio on the back patio and perhaps see if your investment allocations are still appropriate. Any volatility from unexpected events like Brexit or the presidential conventions, for example, may be opportunities to adjust your portfolio to your long-term goals.
- Get on Track with Your Goals
As August gets underway and you finish that last beach read, try writing down your financial objectives for fall. This can remind you not to overspend into summer’s end and give you a chance to map out a strategy to achieve your year-end financial goals. Maybe you will find you even have some extra summer savings left to put to those goals.
We all have the ability to let our guard down and get carried away over the summer months and it often feels to nice. Once you’ve taken the time to relax and enjoy summer, though, set Labor Day as your last hurrah. With back-to-school, get back on track to budget, save and invest.