Women's Money Wisdom

Episode 270: Spring Clean Your Finances: 20 Ways to Refresh Your Financial Life Right Now

• Melissa Joy, CFP® • Season 4 • Episode 270

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Spring is the perfect time for more than just a closet refresh—your finances deserve a reset too!

In this practical, action-driven episode of Women’s Money Wisdom, Melissa Joy, CFP® shares 20 powerful strategies to reinvigorate your financial life with the same fresh energy that spring cleaning brings to your home.

From reviewing your budget in today’s uncertain economy to automating savings and tackling debt in a high-interest environment, each suggestion is designed to be practical, manageable, and highly effective. Whether you’re ready to revamp your beneficiary designations, audit your insurance coverage, consolidate accounts, or simply schedule regular “money dates,” these steps are all about reducing financial stress and building momentum toward your goals.

Melissa draws on real-world client experiences to offer tips that are proven to deliver results—without overwhelming you with complexity. Every recommendation includes ideas for how and when to take action, helping you make meaningful progress without feeling stuck.


Key Topics Covered:

  • How to prioritize small financial wins for big impact
  • Why reviewing your beneficiary designations is crucial
  • The value of an insurance audit to protect your financial future
  • Smart ways to tackle debt and manage rising interest rates
  • The benefits of automating savings and financial organization
  • How to maximize unused loyalty rewards
  • Tips for setting consistent money dates for accountability and partnership
  • Why financial spring cleaning is about progress, not perfection


Download the full checklist mentioned in this episode at pearlplan.com and track your progress as you bring clarity, confidence, and momentum to your financial life.

The previous presentation by PEARL PLANNING was intended for general information purposes only. No portion of the presentation serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from PEARL PLANNING or any other investment professional of your choosing. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and it should not be assumed that future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy, or any non-investment related or planning services, discussion or content, will be profitable, be suitable for your portfolio or individual situation, or prove successful. Neither PEARL PLANNING’s investment adviser registration status, nor any amount of prior experience or success, should be construed that a certain level of results or satisfaction will be achieved if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. PEARL PLANNING is neither a law firm nor accounting firm, and no portion of its services should be construed as legal or accounting advice. No portion of the video content should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. A copy of PEARL PLANNING’s current written disclosure Brochure discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request or at https:...

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast.

Speaker 1:

I'm Melissa Joy, a certified financial planner and the founder of Pearl Planning. My goal is to help you streamline and organize your finances, navigate big money decisions with confidence and be strategic in order to grow your wealth. As a woman, you work hard for your money and I'm here to help you make the most of it. Now let's get into the show. And I'm here to help you make the most of it. Now let's get into the show. Just a quick note before we dive in. The information that we share is meant to educate and inspire, not serve as personalized financial advice. Everyone's situation is unique, so be sure to consult with your own financial professional for guidance that fits your life. And just so you know, the opinions shared in this podcast are my own and those of my guests, and they don't necessarily represent those of any organizations that I'm affiliated with. For more important disclosures, please go to our webpage at pearlplancom. Now let's get started.

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. Today we have a quick hit episode, but when you listen to it, there are so many great ideas that you can incorporate into your financial goals for the next few months. So I hope you enjoy it because we're going to talk about spring cleaning your finances, your finances and I have a list of 20 smart financial tips that you can use to improve your money situation. I wrote an accompanying blog for this episode and we have a link in show notes so you'll be able to go and download the list and, you know, kind of check off the things that you thought might be a good idea if you enjoy what you listen to. But without further ado, let's get started. I feel like springtime is such a great, you know, moment for regrowth, renewal and, living in Michigan, certainly I almost recorded this episode outdoors, because it is such a breath of fresh air to have wonderful, warmer season after a long winter. And when it comes to your money, the themes for spring cleaning are get organized, do better, get your to-do list into action mode and be incremental, so you don't need to do everything all at once. But if you could take one, two or three ideas from this episode and incorporate them into your life, I think that's a win. So you don't need to conquer the world, just make continual improvements. And incremental improvements are great, but be action oriented and, you know, take something off the shelf and get it done. That you is taking up headspace is stressing you out because you haven't gotten around to it. That's a win as far as I'm concerned and, I'll be honest, I'm much better at spring cleaning when it comes to my money than to my house or my garden. So you know, lean in where you are good independently and ask for help when you need it. So it's okay to you know schedule a financial review with your financial planners or something like that.

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Okay, so here comes the list. Let's start with number one review your budget, especially in 2025, so many people are concerned that maybe prices are changing, maybe our economic situation is deteriorating or there may be instability in terms of your job security, and knowing what you spend and what is a necessity and what is a maybe or nice to have that can be really critical. I'm not someone who would shame you if you don't know your exact budget. I get it. That's kind of my life as well but it's so helpful if you can edit and audit whenever possible I think, like once or twice a year, just going through all the statements where you spend money. Make sure, if you are using credit cards for points, that you're looking through all the details, not just the bottom line of what you spent that last month, as well as all your bank accounts and anywhere else you have regular payments coming out and assess. Are some of the things that you signed up for, just not what you're actually using? It may make sense to pitch them, get rid of them, and you may want to lean into certain areas that are more important to you, and rearranging your budget can allow you to do that. Some great tools that can help you. I know that a lot of super budget-oriented people love YNAB and we also use Monarch Money with our clients, so that's another great resource if you want to digitize your budget setting.

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Number two recommendation update your financial goals. I'd also make a note here celebrate the wins. If you were really working hard to, for example, get an emergency reserve and you have it now, great. Acknowledge your achievement and then reset your goals for what's next. You can always revisit and say, hey, this goal felt like it was a long way away in the past, but now we really want to work on it. You can adjust timelines, give yourself incremental you know kind of pit stop numbers. That would be great to know that you're on the right track and also assess for any recent life changes, to see if you need to make any updates.

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Number three check your credit report. So we have access all US citizens to free annual credit reports, and if you go to those credit reports or also if you use a service that tracks your income and fees in general, then this is a great time to do it, maybe twice a year, because you have access to three reports. You could use one this time of year and one six months later, but just double check and make sure that everything's getting paid, you don't have any fraud or anything that you're not aware of. This is a great time to do that. Put it on your calendar then for the next time you should check.

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Number four rebalance your investment portfolio. This especially in a year like this. I never tell people, as markets are down, at least at the moment that I'm recording this to completely bail on your investment strategy, but if you've been neglectful and haven't been rebalancing your investments and they're kind of on a journey of their own that doesn't have a lot of attention to it, you should absolutely rebalance and diversify your portfolio, Make sure that it has the right mix of stocks and bonds and, if you're not sure where to start get some help. You can find online resources. If it's for your retirement account, you may have access to information through your plan, and if you work with a financial planner like me, it might be a good time to reach out and just make sure everything is in ship shape for the way you want it to be. Right now, like I said, I don't recommend a full scale change if you have a well tended investment strategy, but sometimes there's just those accounts that you forget about and you don't look at for a long time, and those may need to be revisited.

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Number five this is a good one, so important. Increase your retirement contributions at least once a year, if not twice, and I think a good time is right after you filed your taxes. Another great time if you get salary adjustments or inflation COLA adjustments in your salary toward the end of the year. Those are both ideal. Bump up, nudge up your 401k savings. Put some money into your IRA or Roth IRA. Nudge up your health savings account contributions. All of these help protect you in the long term, and every year, the amount you're allowed to put in is inflation adjusted. So you may have been maxing, but now you need to review and update, or also just if you start somewhere and plan to increase it over time, having that regular time where you remember to increase and say, hey, can I afford to do one or 2% more. That can be really critical to easing into a successful long-term plan.

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Number six organize your financial documents. Scan the things that you need to shred statements documents. Scan the things that you need to shred statements. Turn them on to receiving them digitally instead of getting a bunch of junk in the mail. Organize your receipts. If you're using a health savings account, keep track of healthcare-related receipts, even if you don't ask for the funds back right now, and just make sure that you have, you know kind of full control over information. If there's an account statement that you used to get and you haven't seen it for a while, maybe it's time to log in and reorganize those accounts or find that lost password or make a phone call if you can't get in. So I actually have an account that was sold from one company to another and I need to make a phone call. So I'm putting that on my personal to-do list. The financial planner can do their own spring cleaning.

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Number seven consolidate accounts. I find so often people end up collecting accounts along the way, and sometimes it's by design because they really feel like, oh, I'll be a little bit safer if I just spread things out all over the place. But it kind of becomes a scavenger hunt when you need to get organized. There's so many different challenges if you just start to collect account after account, and so my kind of rule of thumb is don't have too many accounts. Every account should have a reason and a purpose, and you know we could debate this on an episode, but I really feel like fewer custodians or locations can also be really critical, and so if you have old employer plans, you could think about putting them into your current retirement plan or rolling over to an IRA. If you have a bunch of different accounts, you're not sure why. Maybe fewer is better. It's so much easier then to make sure that you have the right beneficiary designations, the right account titling, the right mix of stocks and bonds. When things are a little more consolidated because of multiple logins, tracking things all over the place, especially if you're doing it yourself, can be really challenging. My rule of thumb is when there's not a reason to be more complex, keep it simple, and then you can devote more time and energy to the few parts of your overall financial life that really need the increasing kind of degree of difficulty. Don't make things more difficult right off the bat by having things all over the place or not being organized.

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Number eight audit your insurance coverage. So whether we're talking about home and auto, which is a biggie for everybody, or your renter's insurance, or your health insurance, for your plans for enrollment, or even considering long-term care insurance, it's important to give refreshes along the way. I didn't even mention life insurance, and I've been having a lot of conversations with young families who need term life insurance because they don't have adequate coverage to replace one or the other family member's income if something were to happen to them and they passed away. But then also there's certain instances where you may be overpaying for insurance you don't need if you've been able to you know kind of grow your overall estate and net worth outside of your life insurance. And then generally, property insurance is getting more and more expensive. Some of this might be justifiable because property values are higher, there's more intense storms and there's more intense, unfortunately, property damage. We know big examples. We've had clients and friends who lost things in fires, floods, hurricanes, etc. And so insurance can get expensive.

Speaker 1:

You need to know two things Are you overpaying and are you underinsured? And a review or audit can be critical in order to assess that. If you're really comfortable with the insurance agent that you work with today, then have some to do an assessment and make sure that you're adequately covered and there's no opportunities to save. And if you don't have that strong connection with the insurance agent, you know one of the things that we do for our clients is make a recommendation for an independent broker who can assess your overall insurance needs. And then when you just think, where do I even start with life insurance? That's a great area too, where you need to be careful and not be oversold insurances that you don't necessarily need. We're not huge fans in most cases of things like whole life insurance if you're a young starting out family, but simple term life insurance is something that financial planners can recommend or insurance agents.

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Number nine evaluate your emergency fund. Everybody needs to remember not to just like kind of fix it and set it aside. When it comes to your emergency reserves, your lifestyle may have expanded and your old amount that you keep kind of in your three to six month war chest may be smaller than it needs to be smaller than it needs to be. That said, I also work with a lot of families that end up kind of having more and more cash building up and maybe they've kind of topped off the emergency reserve and have some excess funds that could go to more retirement savings, additional investments outside of their retirement accounts, etc. And so assessing and saying do we have the right amount? Do we need to work on getting more? Do we need some options so that we can make sure that we don't have too much cash building up? Now I will say people always come to me and they're like oh my God, I'm so embarrassed, I have so much cash. This is not something to be embarrassed about at all and there's not judgment. There's also not one rule of thumb. Some people feel a lot more comfortable with a lot of cash and that's okay by me.

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Number 10, plan for your big expenses. So maybe you know you need to replace a vehicle, or perhaps you are planning for a big remodel or the kids are going off to college. If you have a big cost that's coming up, you might as well start now in making a game plan for where that money is going to come from. You may need to sock something away, you may need to prepay for vacation it just depends on what's coming up. But do plan ahead. You can't fully predict any unanticipated costs, but you can certainly start to get your ducks in a row for that bill that you know will be coming. So, again, that like goes back with refreshing your goals, but the big expenses for the next six to 12 months should definitely be assessed, and that's when you need the realistic like. This is exactly how it's going to be happening, not just like an ethereal like oh, I think I have enough, we'll see when we get there.

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Number 11, this is a biggie Update your beneficiaries. I see so many cases where people neglect their beneficiary designation. This goes back to that like simplify and don't have too many accounts, because if you have 20 accounts to keep track of for your beneficiary designations, you're much more likely to screw one up than if you just have one. There's one retirement provider that we work a lot with and it feels like when you go to update your beneficiaries that you've updated it across all the accounts. It's a university employer, so they happen to have like more plans than just one, and we see so many times that the clients haven't updated every single account. So, like, if you have a custodian and you have a lot of different plans under the same custodian, like Schwab or Fidelity you probably need to go into every single account and update your beneficiaries. And you can also provide beneficiary designations on accounts that aren't retirement accounts. So remember, you also need beneficiary designations for your life insurance. You need it for, sometimes, your house, the deed to your house, and your bank accounts and your investment accounts that are not retirement accounts. A lot of these are payable on death or transfer on death.

Speaker 1:

Beneficiary designation that's kind of the nomenclature or language that you would hear from the bank or custodian. But there's a lot of different things that you may need to update and certainly talking to an estate planning attorney or your financial planner to make sure that you're adapting and covering all of your bases can be really important. Some no-nos like, let's say, you have a most responsible family member who you're like I'm just going to name you as beneficiary and then you can figure it out. Or maybe you have minor children and you're like oh, it's my sister who would take care of them if something happened to me, so I'll just have this other family member be the beneficiary. No, do not do that. You really need to go in, have a thorough plan, and if things are complex, that's where the attorney comes in to assist you. Don't assume that somebody will just dole it up, because they have tax consequences that you don't get to. You know, bill other people for. So that's really important to consider.

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Number 12, look at your debt and interest rates and make sure that everything is in alignment. We all know that interest rates have gone higher over the last few years and they really are a much bigger factor in terms of the cost of your house, your automobile, your credit cards, personal lines of credit, student loans, even. Credit cards, personal lines of credit, student loans, even. And so do, look, be paying off the highest interest debt if you can. First Don't if you're in trouble with credit card debt, you know make a game plan to get out of that debt and really just make sure that you're not, you know, kind of addicted to borrowing, because it was so easy when interest rates were two, three or 4% to say, oh, I'll just pay it off later and we'll figure it out and let's just get what we need. But that is not the case today the interest rates are seven, eight, 20, 30 when it comes to credit cards. So this is like real money, real difficult to get out of when you get in a hole, and so it's important to plan for and if you need that to be your main priority for this spring cleaning, get right to it and make that a top priority.

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Number 13, I love this one Maximize your rewards. If you're participating in credit card programs, loyalty programs, your bank account has rewards programs, loyalty programs, your bank account has rewards, et cetera. You don't get rewards or awards for you know, just having the most. At the end you actually really need to spend those because there's often kind of reward inflation where you're, the value of your awards goes down over time. So having a solid strategy where you're going to capitalize on those loyalty programs that you're using and you know, maybe you defer some costs or reduce some costs for things you're planning to do this summer by cashing in some of your miles or awards, that all makes it worth the time and expense because in many cases you're paying a fee for the programs. Make sure that.

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Number 14, automate your savings. Also, automate your investments. So whether you're trying to add to an emergency reserve, you're boosting in a high yield savings or you're increasing debt repayments, automate it so that we'll have it paid off earlier. I felt like there maybe there was room in the budget. You would always turn it down later. Maybe you decided that your cash account was too high, but the market's so bumpy You're like I'm not sure what exactly the right time is to put more in. Well then, why don't you make a game plan where you can bump things? You bump things up and just start a thousand dollars a month and then nudge it to two or something like that. So automating is always helpful, just like simplifying or reducing.

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The number of counts is Number 15, review your tax withholdings. You just did your taxes. If you're with the majority of Americans and I know more and more people are also delaying or extending their tax returns that's okay too. But if you had a huge tax bill, then maybe it's time to adjust your withholdings higher and also plan to make estimated payments. And perhaps you're on the converse side, where you get a bunch of money back, but you could have used that money during the year. I understand that there are some people who are like no, this is how I pay off my credit cards and more power to you, that's great, but otherwise, if you're just not hitting the target and estimating your taxes appropriately, then it may be time to review and assess whether you're making the right withholdings and nudge it up or down depending on your circumstance.

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Number 16, refresh your estate plan. I cannot emphasize enough how this is like a laborious chore that I know everyone hates, or at least most people do, but is so critical, so important to have your affairs in order. People don't think about it because they think, oh, I'll get around to it when it becomes important. But all of us need a plan, a document that says who can make medical decisions for you, something that says who can be a power of attorney and, of course, those end-of-life instructions that are often incorporated into will or trust. But sometimes you've already drafted your estate plan, but it's just not relevant for your life today. Perhaps you've gotten divorced, perhaps now you have children, perhaps your minor children are responsible adults and that times have changed since you originally drafted your plan.

Speaker 1:

Well, all of this needs to be incorporated into periodic refreshes. It doesn't have to be every year, but if now is the right year to do an update, then reach out to an attorney. Now, this will be in a debate with my attorney friends, who I love having as listeners. But if you're never going to reach out to an attorney Now, this will be in a debate with my attorney friends, who I love having as listeners. But if you're never going to reach out to that attorney because you don't want to pay their bill, well, first I'll tell you I strongly recommend that that cost is going to be so beneficial over time. A well-planned estate can help you while you're alive and also, after you pass away, will help your heirs and the people that you love. But if you're just never going to get around to it or you're waiting until you move and you want to do it in a different state, then there are resources like Trust and Will, or we use a service called Wealthcom that can draft digitally estate plans with knowledge and information that's relevant to your state. Again, I would always start by recommending working with an attorney, but if you're like no, I would rather like chat GPT estate planning documents, please. There are better ways to do this at a reasonable cost.

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Number 17, track your net worth. I don't think you have to know exactly how many dollars you have every single day, but you can see that your financial condition and financial health help if you track your net worth once or twice a year. Add up all of your accounts, both your taxable investment accounts, your savings and checking your retirement accounts and then make a list of the value of your home, for example, or any other personal property that you may have that has a value, and then make a list of the value of your home, for example, or any other personal property that you may have that has a value, and then make a list of your liabilities or debt as well and subtract those from your bottom line and see if that's growing over time. Of course, the stock market's down this year so far. That's OK. You might be surprised at how much better your accounts are doing than you think, but it's so healthy to be able to know all of the things that you have and this can be really helpful with organizing.

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Number 18, evaluate charitable giving. I think charitable giving is so valuable. It leaves a legacy, it tells a story of what's important to you, and not everyone's going to feel that it's appropriate right now to do charitable giving, but if you have philanthropic goals that are important to you, if you feel like you'd like your money to be going to a place that makes a difference. Perhaps now would be a great time to consider either a recurring gift or, if you're close to itemizing on your tax returns, you might want to make a bigger gift with something like a donor advised fund, where you could get a tax break now and then dole out the proceeds of your gift over time to deserving nonprofits. Tourable planning can be really empowering, a lot of fun, and it also can be smart money smart. If you have that as a personal financial goal, so put it on your list if it feels important to you. You don't have to wait till the end of the year.

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Number 19, set a money date. So if you're someone who makes joint financial decisions with your partner then or spouse, then now's a great time to say hey, we should check in. Do you have any things on your to-do list? Here's some things on my to-do list. Or let's read this blog and see if there's any great ideas for things that we should do together. You can send them a text with this episode and then say I want to make a money date where we spend 30 minutes or an hour going over our finances and seeing where we think we have either weaknesses or opportunities. We can also congratulate each other on how we're doing well.

Speaker 1:

If you're single or someone who doesn't make joint financial decisions, you might want to make a money date or have an accountability partner with a trusted friend. I know that that's one way that a lot of women I work with love to kind of focus on their money, just like a book group, but instead with a financial accountability partner. So let me know, by the way, if you're trying this out, because I'd love to hear some stories and feedback about how it goes. And then, finally, number 20, check on your financial plan with your financial team. If you're someone who's invested in a financial plan by hiring professionals like myself to either handle investing or financial planning or, in our case, we really look at both and or you're working with a tax professional or a state planner, it's always great to be able to collaborate, to check in, to make sure that everyone is being proactive and not neglecting reviewing opportunities, and so it's always good to have a check-in and this is a great time of year to plan. You've got your tax return, which is critical information as far as I'm concerned, and you have a lot of runway for the rest of the year, so if you want to really get things done, pulling together a list of action items or to-dos can be really good right now.

Speaker 1:

I hope you liked this quick hit of actionable ideas and do be sure to download our blog where you can print out the list and check some off and let us hear how it's going. We love your feedback and we also appreciate if you like the podcast, follow it and provide us with a review. Have a great week and we'll see you next week. Thank you for listening to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. If you found value in this episode, the best way you can support the podcast is to forward an episode to a friend or leave a review. Go to pearlplancom and the podcast link to get all the resources and links mentioned.

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Melissa Joy, CFP

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