Spring Clean Your Wallet Figuratively and Literally

As we turn the corner from winter to spring, the energy of the earth starts to rebound with new growth. With this energy, we often consider doing some spring cleaning to dust off the winter and move toward summer.

When it comes to spring cleaning, a wallet is a nice reasonable task to tackle to take it from what might be overloaded and thick, to a lean, mean, financial machine.

Literally Clean It Out

From a literal standpoint, take everything out of the wallet and go through the contents (don’t forget the hidden pockets). Identify all those expired cards, old receipts and old store cards and fobs that you don’t use. Throw out the expired cards, old receipts, and store cards no longer needed.

Those credit cards you use are literally dirty with germs from your and other’s hands. Clean them with a disinfectant sheet and let them dry before putting them back.

Take the opportunity to scan them or make a photocopy of them so that you have that information available in case your wallet is stolen and you need the information from the card. Scan or copy by the front and the back of the card, as it will have the phone number to call on the card (likely on the back).

Leave The High-Risk Items At Home

If you have high-risk items such as a social security card, Medicare card or a house key, don’t put them back. Since you only need these for specific situation, it is not necessary and actually a risk if they are in your wallet all the time. Each of these items are associated with your identity and someone stealing the wallet would have enough information to impersonate your identity.

The social security card and Medicare card should be kept in a fire-resistant box. These well-insulated units are not very expensive that will hold folded 8 ½ x 11 inch pages or wallet-size cards. Other items that are good to keep in this box include birth certificates, marriage licenses, divorce decrees, and passports.

As for that spare house key, rather than carrying it in the wallet, give it to a trusted friend or neighbor on a keyring labelled so that they know what it is for. Since we all tend to carry a phone with us outside of our home, it should be easy to get ahold of that trusted person if needed to get into the house.

Digitize Where Possible

Since almost all of us have smart phones, it may be possible to convert those store reward and discount cards and fobs to digital using an app such as Stocard or Keyring. Take advantage of your phone’s camera to snap photos of things you want to have, but don’t need keep

Check Your Financial Status

Time To Put It All Back

When it is time to put things back, all that is really needed is your driver or state ID, a primary and a backup credit card, and some cash. You’ll want to put the cards you use most often near the front or in a place easy to get to. Lessor used cards can be further back.

You may want to put the cash back in denomination order – highest to lowest front-to-back or back-to-front as you prefer. As for those photos, this might be a good time to put in a more recent version of the partner or children.

With the warming of the weather, this is an opportunity to get rid of the dust bunnies of your budget and like dusting a piece of furniture, allow you to see your financial tools with a critical eye.