Spring Cleanup!
I made it a habit to do my spring cleanup during mid-summer. Not the physical cleaning of my home and donating old clothes to Goodwill, I usually do that during the spring. What I do during mid-summer months is review my financial standing.
There are the Christmas gift debts that you incurred and wanted to pay it off in six months or so, or you spent a little more on something that wasn’t in your budget during the month of March. I review those and re-align my spending for the remaining months of the year to put me back on track. One of the practice I have is to review credit card offers. I get tons of these every day. I mean, my mailbox is always filled with offers from current credit cards I own, or others willing to offer me a better deal. If I see something that is a bit enticing (usually it has to be a 0% interest for 12 months before I even open the envelope), I take a look at it, review the fine print and off I go.
I don’t normally apply for credit haphazardly because this tends to lower your credit score. I usually do it twice a year. Every six months, I review my bills and see where I can save. When I had my kitchen done last summer, I transferred the balance of that card to a 0% interest promotional offer. I just made my last payment this month. I would have paid lots of interest if I didn’t do it carefully.
Usually credit card offers vary by type such as rewards, cash back, airline miles and so forth. Try to see what fits your lifestyle best. If you think that you would benefit more with an additional 25,000 airline miles to get a free ticket, then go with that. Just remember always to do your Spring Cleanup. It doesn’t matter if you do it in December, May or February as long as you do it. Cheers!
