I haven’t been prioritizing my to do list in the way I should.  When life becomes overwhelming (as happens more often than any of us would like), it’s easy to lose track of what should be happening when, and things fall by the wayside.  My “weekly” Moneywise Tip has been one of the things that has fallen to the wayside.  And I need to do better.  Fall semester has been a whirlwind for me.  Long weekends planned long in advance, care of my elderly mother, home repairs, law school reunification activities, purchase and repair of a 20-year-old camper van (sure to factor into many future adventures!), and a presidential election that sucked all the oxygen out of the news cycle for way too many months have all pulled my attention away from writing.  And that needs to be fixed.  Starting now.

It’s not just the Moneywise Tip.  I’m behind on absolutely everything.  My house needs to be cleaned.  I need to do some repairs in my bathroom.  My cats need vaccinations.  I need to submit claims to my mom’s health insurance company.  And I haven’t even taken the time to manage my own finances.  I knew it had gotten bad when I e-paid my electric bill from a camping trip because it was coming due in a couple of days and I remembered I hadn’t paid it yet.  I didn’t have the bill with me, but I just submitted the request to pay an amount that I knew was more than the amount I owed.  But I hit an all-time low for myself last week when I looked at my natural gas bill and discovered it was due that day.  I immediately e-paid it, but the payment definitely was arriving late.  This likely won’t take a toll on my credit rating because the payment will be received only a couple of days late and this is abnormal for me with a decades long history of paying things on time.  But it’s a wake-up call.  I need to start paying more attention to my priorities.

I’m very overdue for a “money date” with myself.  Every so often it is important to take a couple of hours and sit down to look at your finances.  How much have you been spending on what?  Are you within your budget, or is it time to evaluate your budget categories? Are you meeting your savings goals?  Have you been paying down your debt in a way that makes sense? Do you have a plan for bill paying that makes sure everything is paid on time?  Ideally a money date should happen with regular frequency.  Once a month. Or at least once every few months.

I know that the end of the semester is a very busy time for law students.  Outlines and briefs and papers and studying tend to take priority over things like self-care and personal finance.  But it is still important to make sure not to forget completely about the other priorities.  Learn from my mistakes.  Pay your bills on time.  And when the semester ends, it’s a great time to have a money date with yourself.