20 Things to Check Every Year

Note that the picture has nothing at all to do with this post, I just took it this morning on my walk!  Anyway, here are 20 things to check every year that can save you big money!

1. Car insurance.  I usually call around once a year as my car insurance is coming up for renewal just to see if I can find a better deal.  Right now we have our car insurance through Costco and it is a pretty good deal but it always pays to check.
2. House insurance.  Same as above.  We generally bundle our house and car insurance to get an even better deal.  Note, some insurance companies charge a higher price for car insurance and a lower price for house insurance or vice versa so you might have to break out the calculator to figure out the best deal.  Rates will also vary by the size of your deductible, your credit score, where you live, if you have any hazards (like a pool for your home insurance, or drive for Uber when calculating car insurance).
3. Health insurance.  Often times your health insurance is set by your employer but if you are using the public market, check your state health insurance (ACA/Obamacare) because it seems like income qualification rates change every year and even if you didn't qualify last year, you may qualify this year.
4. Cell phone plan.  I used to check cell phone plan rates every year when whatever discount I was getting expired but for the past few years I have been using Mint Mobile and I haven't heard of any other cell plan that is only $15 a month!
5. Food stamps.  Like state health insurance plans, the income needed to qualify for food stamps (SNAP) seems to change yearly too so if you have a change of income or life circumstances, you may find you qualify for food stamps.  It doesn't hurt to check!
6. Free or reduced school lunch.  Similarly, income qualifiers for free or reduced school lunch for your kids can change so it pays to check every year just to see if you qualify.  You may even find that your state is now providing free lunch for all students (my state just started doing this and I think it is an excellent use of our tax money!).
7. WIC.  The Women, Infant, and Children food program is similar to SNAP but it is geared towards pregnant women and women with small children.  Again, program qualifiers change yearly so even if you checked to see if you qualified for this program in previous years, it pays to check every year that you are pregnant or have small children just to see if you qualify.
8. Tax withholding.  This is something you can (and maybe should) change when your life circumstances change or if you are getting a huge tax return back each year and would like to spread that income throughout the year.
9. Your mortgage.  Have you paid enough on your mortgage that you can drop PMI (private mortgage insurance)?  Often times your lender won't remind you to check this.  Are mortgage rates dropping and you could save lots of money by refinancing?  Is your escrow account balancing out each year or do you need to change this?  Many thing effect your mortgage payment (usually principal, interest, and property tax) so any ways you can reduce these things or speed up the payment of the principal, will save you money.
10. Internet and cable TV.  Providers of these services as well as plans can change often so it pays to check and see if you are getting the best deal.  We dropped cable TV all together and now use an over the air antenna but we still need internet so I check for deals on our rate plan each year just to see if we can get a new, better deal to help us save money.
11. Subscriptions.  Do you need all of the subscriptions you currently have or could you cut a few to save money?  Netflix, a gym membership, Costco/Sam's Club, online services...sometimes we have old memberships that are auto-billed that we don't even use anymore so cancelling them could save you money.
12. Prescription medications.  It's a good idea to review your prescription medications annually with your doctor (there may even be some you no longer need) as well as review prices for your prescriptions in order to save money.  I've heard good things about the GoodRx app, non-members can still use Costco and Sam's Club pharmacies to buy their prescriptions, Walmart is also cheap for certain medications and if you are really in a pinch, there are several prescription assistance programs that may be able to help you cover the cost of your prescription meds.
13. Investments.  It is also a good idea to review your investments with your financial advisor every year.  Are you meeting your employer match?  Are you maxing out your ROTH?  Do you need to rebalance your portfolio?  Doing these things annually can ensure you are getting the full benefit of your investing.
14. Credit report.  I pull our credit reports annually just to make sure there is nothing unusual happening with our credit that we don't know about.  I also have a credit freeze on my accounts with all three credit bureaus for added protection.
15. Utility bills.  I check our utility bills each month, note any increase in usage (a good way to see if you have a water leak) and check the flyers that come with these bills for any freebies they are offering (our electric company is now offering free refrigerator and washer replacements!).  By checking the utility company websites you can find help for paying your utility bills if needed, check out the freebies section (I order free shower heads when needed from the water company), and many utility companies offer other discounts (we get a discount for paying our sewer bill annually instead of monthly, and our electric company offers ways to pay an averaged out bill each month over the course of a year instead of being hit with huge summer bills because everyone here uses lots of air conditioning).
16. Home inventory.  Each year hubby gets his cell phone and videos everything in our house.  This is a simple way to document everything we have for insurance purposes in case disaster strikes.  I keep these videos on my computer, backed up on my phone, and backed up on a thumb drive too.
17. Review tax return.  These days we take the standard deduction but in years past when we had a larger income, a business, and a huge amount of deductions, I would review every line of our tax return in order to plan for the following year.  This way I could see what other deductions we could take on both the schedule A and the schedule C the following year and remember to keep my receipts for all of these things so I didn't have to go hunting for receipts a year after we bought something.
18. Payment discounts.  Whenever possible, we get good discounts by paying our bills annually or biannually instead of monthly.  We pay our sewer bill annually, our cell phone bills annually, our insurance bills biannually, and our HOA bill annually, all of which save us money over paying these bills every month.
    
19. Financial planning checklist.  Usually towards the end of the year, we review a few financial planning checklists to see if we are missing anything that could save us money.  Here is an example which is a good reminder of things to do over the course of a year with your finances.
    
20. Finally, I review a list of important documents and make sure we have all of these items in a file in our safe.  I also scan all of these documents so they are backed up on my computer.  Some sample lists here and here.