How to Run a 15-Minute Quarterly Money Review

PERSONAL · FOUNDATIONS · NET WORTH & TRACKING · 6 MIN · Filed by Johnnie

You don't need a finance degree to catch what matters. You need a calendar reminder and a laptop.

Four things you look at, four times a year, on purpose. Monthly reviews get skipped. Quarterly is infrequent enough to stay on the calendar and frequent enough to catch the subscription you forgot, the balance that drifted, the rate that quietly doubled.

Procedure

Put the review on the calendar before you close this tab. First Saturday after each quarter ends — January, April, July, October. Coffee, laptop, fifteen minutes, done before brunch. Schedule the next one before you close the session.
Checking — scroll back to the start of the quarter. Two things only. Recurring charges you do not recognize or do not want — cancel them from your phone before closing the tab. And the shape of your average balance — trending up, flat, or leaking down. Four minutes.
Credit cards — every card you use. Total owed across all cards, start of quarter to end. Growing on purpose is fine. Growing by accident is not. Look at the interest line, not just the minimum payment — it is what the card is actually costing you. Three minutes.
Savings and investments — everything that is supposed to go up. Did each account move in the direction you meant? If you contribute monthly and the balance dropped, is that the market or did your contribution stop? The math on an automated contribution is predictable. If the number is off, something is off. Four minutes.
Write down one number you are tracking. Total savings, debt-to-income, months of expenses, net worth — pick one and log it every quarter. Trends are more useful than snapshots and you can only see them if you write the number down. Ninety seconds. Do not skip it.

Key figures

CADENCE: 4× / YR — Jan · Apr · Jul · Oct
TIME: 15 MIN — per review, one sitting
LEAK EX.: $89 / MO — forgotten subscription, 3 yrs

About the writer

Johnnie — Personal finance — formerly retail trading desk, Chicago. Johnnie spent a decade on a retail trading desk before walking away to write for people who were never meant to read a 10-K. He answers the money questions you're a little embarrassed to ask.