Spring is a great time to tackle your to-do list: The rainy weather offers a good opportunity to tidy up your closets, get rid of unwanted clothes or reorganize the kitchen.
It's also a good time to look at your finances. By this time of year, you've hopefully made progress toward paying off holiday bills and have a clearer sense of your budget for the year.
Below, CNBC Select talks with two money experts about how to give your finances a spring cleaning.
Financial spring cleaning
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File your taxes
Springtime also means tax season. Prepare your return if you haven't already and think about what you're going to do with your refund.
"Consumers should be thinking about what they would like to do with their tax refunds if they got one — whether that's putting it toward a savings goal or building an emergency fund," Sasha Grabenstetter, a financial counselor at eMoney Advisor, told CNBC Select.
Tax software programs like TurboTax, H&R Block®, Cash App Tax and TaxSlayer® can help you file your state and federal returns quickly and accuratley while still maximizing deductions to get a bigger refund.
TurboTax
Free version
If you have a simple Form 1040 return only (no forms or schedules except as needed to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, student loan interest, and Schedule 1-A), you can file for free yourself with TurboTax Free Edition, or you can file with TurboTax Expert Assist Basic at the listed price. Roughly 37% of taxpayers are eligible.
Guarantee
Guarantees 100% accuracy and maximum refund
Live support
Expert Assist plan includes unlimited assistance and final review. Expert Full Service includes a dedicated expert to complete and file your return.
Tax refund advance loan
Yes
Read our review of TurboTax tax software.
It's not too late to think about next year, either: Marsha Barnes, founder of The Finance Bar, suggests creating a "tax toolkit" to help you put all your tax documents in one place.
Pay down debts
There are no perfect rules of where to start paying off debts, said Barnes.
"Choose the bill with the lowest balance, the highest interest rate or the one that provides you with the most angst," she adds. "Begin with the desire to boost your financial confidence."
No matter which debt you work on first, you should still have a plan for the other bills that remain. If you have both student loans and outstanding credit card balances, paying off the card first probably makes more sense, since credit cards have much higher interest rates. But you should a plan in place for moving onto your student loans.
If you're overwhelmed, Freedom Debt Relief can consolidate your bills, reduce your monthly payments and potentially save your money in interest. There is a minimum debt threshold of $7,500 and FDR charges both a monthly fee for its service and a flat percentage of the total settlement you receive.
Freedom Debt Relief
Minimum debt
$7,500
Fees
Settlement fee is 15% to 25% of enrolled debt. $9.95 escrow account set-up charge and $9.95 monthly service fee
Availability
Not available in Colorado, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming or Washington, D.C.
Highlights
Freedom Debt Relief has resolved over $20 billion in outstanding debts since 2002. It offers free credit card debt relief consultations.
Plan your summer budget
With the warm weather inching closer, you may already be envisioning your next vacation, music festival or night on the town. Instead of waiting for June, says Grabenstetter, "allocate more funds toward these goals in the months ahead, so you won't have to miss out because your spending doesn't allow for it."
She suggests creating a budget for smaller things, like sunscreen, bug spray, snacks and sunglasses.
Buying sundries with a credit card that gives you cash back or travel rewards can earn you rewards you can use. this summer: Chase Freedom Unlimited® (see rates and fees) users earn unlimited 5% cash back on travel purchases made through Chase Travel℠ and 3% on restaurants, takeout and drugstores.
The Chase Freedom Unlimited® is a no-annual-fee card that earns generous cash-back on everyday purchases and a lucrative welcome bonus.
- Users get a high rewards rate and strong welcome bonus
- Purchases and balance transfers get long intro APR
- No annual fee
- Travelers face a foreign transaction fee
- Few rewarding ongoing benefits
Highlights
Highlights shown here are provided by the issuer and have not been reviewed by CNBC Select's editorial staff.
- Earn a $200 Bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening
- Enjoy 5% cash back on travel purchased through Chase TravelSM, our premier rewards program that lets you redeem rewards for cash back, travel, gift cards and more; 3% cash back on drugstore purchases and dining at restaurants, including takeout and eligible delivery service, and 1.5% on all other purchases.
- No minimum to redeem for cash back. You can use points to redeem for cash through an account statement credit or an electronic deposit into an eligible Chase account located in the United States!
- Enjoy 0% Intro APR for 15 months from account opening on purchases and balance transfers, then a variable APR of 18.24% - 27.74%.
- No annual fee – You won't have to pay an annual fee for all the great features that come with your Freedom Unlimited® card
- Keep tabs on your credit health, Chase Credit Journey helps you monitor your credit with free access to your latest score, alerts, and more.
- Member FDIC
Balance transfer fee
Intro fee of either $5 or 3% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater, in the first 60 days. After that, either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater.
Foreign transaction fee
3% of each transaction in U.S. dollars
Vacationers can also experiment with value-based spending when planning their summer expenses, Barnes said. That involves figuring out what's really important to you and focusing on it when you allocate your money.
"In priority order, plug your top one to three experiences in your budget," she explains. "Do your best to avoid forcing them to fit. The overall goal of budgeting is to provide guardrails, or financial safety, around your money and your habits."
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Bottom line
Tidy up your finances this spring by making sure your taxes are taken care of, that you have plans to address any debt and that you've budgeted for summer travel.
Meet our experts
At CNBC Select, we work with experts who have specialized knowledge and authority based on relevant training and/or experience. For this story, we interviewed Marsha Barnes, a certified financial social worker partnered with Wells Fargo and founder of The Finance Bar. We also spoke with Sasha Grabenstetter, a financial counselor at eMoney Advisor.
Why trust CNBC Select?
At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every personal finance review is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of personal finance products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics.
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