Steps To Take To Get Your Financial House in Order

Hi. I'm Jackie Giglio, and I'm a wealth adviser at SouthState Wealth here in Columbia, South Carolina. Today, we're going to discuss the steps that you need to take to get your financial house in order. The first step to getting your financial house in order is to organize your documents. A simple inventory of key documents would include your will, power of attorney health care proxy and insurance policies.

If you do not have all of these documents in place, begin here by making it a priority to have them prepared and executed. If you do have them, be sure to review your documents and beneficiary designations every three to five years or when. Significant life events such as marriage divorce or death occur in your family. We want to ensure that the documents still appropriately reflect your wishes.

Once you know what you have and all your documents are completed, the most important thing is to keep them organized in one place where you can easily access them. And also be sure to inform a trusted friend or family member of their existence and its location. It also helps to keep mortgage documents, retirement and investment account statements Your insurance policies, and any tax information together with these legal documents.

The second step is to know and connect with your financial goals. If we understand how our savings and investment plan will meet our future obligations, we will feel so much better about saving each month when we can project what those savings will be worth in five years, ten years and 20 years. The third step is setting a budget when it comes to budgeting most people think about their budget in a two part manner.

How do we how much do we make and how much can we spend? But a better way is to think of budgeting in three steps. One. How much do I need to save to? What is my income after those savings? And three. What can we spend If you can take care of the savings part first, that is the number one understanding that will shape your financial life.

The last and most important step is to ask questions. Women are excellent communicators, so if we want to improve our financial lives, we need to understand and identify our goals. And it's very easy to ask a few simple questions to your banker, spouse, lawyer, mortgage lender, and financial advisor. So please feel free to reach out to our team here at SouthState Wealth.

We're happy to help you organize your financial life and help you pursue your financial goals.