How to Complete a Financial Check-In for Self-Care

A huge but less popular form of self-care is financial self-care. I like to complete a daily financial check-in as financial self-care. Here are the steps I use for this check-in.

Steps for Completing a Financial Check-In

1) Review my bank's app for my transactions.

This step is first because it's the most important step for my current financial situation. I check my transactions to ensure that there are no suspicious transactions. Generally, my bank will alert me to suspicious transaction. But it's just as important to check yourself to make sure you are not over-charged for any transactions.

This step is akin to taking a financial forecast. You can see where and how you spent your money, which is important for the next step.

2) Log transactions and tally spending for the day.

Many of us paper planner users know the power of writing things down. If you are new to the planner world or use digital planners, read this article.

There is power in writing down your transactions. So although I review my transactions in my bank's app, I also write the transactions in my spending log. I write the category of the spending, the amount, and whether the purchase was a "need" or a "want." Then, I highlight the "needs" and the "wants" in different colored highlighters. I am a visual person; this step is usually an eye-opener for me if I am purchasing a lot of "wants" lately.

A newer step in my routine is tallying my spending for the day and writing the total in my calendar view. This step helps me to identify patterns in my spending behavior. For example, if I am online shopping a lot on Sunday and Monday nights, I can attribute that to the Sunday scaries and the Monday blues and try to find another activity in its place.

3) Make budget adjustments, if necessary.

Sometimes I can skip this step if I'm doing well with my spending.

Other times, I may have overspent in a budgeting category and need to make adjustments to control my spending. For example, if I overspend on my clothes budget for a particular paycheck or month, then I know I will need to decrease my spending in another area, like Starbucks/eating out or planner supplies, to compensate for this over spending.

4) Check bill due dates.

If you read last week's Finance Friday's post then you know my memory is BAD and I'm horrible at remembering bills. No matter how many times I write bills in my planner, I struggle to remember my bills. I have use four methods (yes all four) to remember my bills. Hey, whatever works! I don't miss a bill when I use all four methods!

This step of the financial check-in is the last method on my bill tracking list. I check my bill due dates to ensure that I paid all bills due that day. I also make sure that any bills on auto-pay processed without any issues.

Be sure to check out other episodes of Finance Fridays here: Budgeting/Bill tracking and Spending!

Do you check in with your finances daily? If so, what steps are part of your financial check-in?