So I go on to you people all the time about my finances, I thought I’d throw this out here.

I’ve talked a little bit about how I’m doing budgeting, cutting expenses, working on improving my credit.

In the past month, I’ve made some gains. I reworked my budget, I opened up a savings account, I got renters insurance. I opened an IRA with $20. (I’ll have one hell of a retirement with my $20!!) I got two erroneous things to come off my credit report.

My bank offers a free financial assessment tool where you answer some questions and they spit out what you should do. I thought I’d put it here as a reference as I go along, in addition to my comments.

Then you all can feel free to tell me what your financial goals are and all that and we’ll have a nice chat.

So here’s what it says about me:

1. Obtain disability coverage that provides at least $25,800.00 yearly.

Hmm. I probably won’t do this anytime soon. I’m already disabled, for starters.

2. Work with an attorney to draw up durable powers of attorney, living wills, and HIPAA authorizations.
Ok this I definitely need to do. I had these things, but they gave all the power to Kenny, which considering we don’t speak, seems ill-advised.

3. Work with an attorney to draft a will and name guardians for your children.
Yes..I really need to do this. I’ve been putting this off way too long. This is a priority.

4. You should buy an extra $301,000.00 of life insurance.

Yeah, I need to. I have no life insurance. If Geo I dies, I get some money, but if I die, everyone is SOL.

5. After paying monthly bills, save until your emergency fund equals $10,200.00.

Hmm. Building an emergency fund is one of my definite goals. I’m not sure I will save to $10,000 though.

6. You should save an additional $517.43 or 14.44% per month towards your retirement.

I think they are mocking my $20 IRA fund. $500 a month towards my IRA would be tough. What I’m planning on doing is splitting my extra money 1/2 into the IRA and 1/2 into the emergency fund until I get the emergency fund built, and then dumping the rest into the IRA. Of course, that doesn’t account for…

7. Save monthly to an education savings account.
Ugh. This is one of my nightmares. Of course, I didn’t have an education savings account and I’m not sure I feel that I should pay for my kid’s education. But I’d like to be able to contribute something.

8. Review all your insurance every two years to make sure you are still fully protected

Ok, I can do that.

9.Check at least every three years to see if your legal documents need updating.
Ok!

10. Rebalance your investments at least annually to stay on target and adjust for risk

Sounds good.

11. Check your credit report at least annually for errors or identity theft.
Ha. I check mine every day.

Right now, it says I’ve got a score of 45 out of 100. Well, that’s something.

How about you? Do you do these things? What are your goals?