Hey folks, welcome to this month’s edition of breaking down the mortgage. I’ve got some good news for you, I’m not going to bore you with typical mortgage-related stuff. Instead, I want to share something you can actually use in your life to help you get where you want to go.
I do want to give credit where it’s due, this came from my accountant, Haney and Company. It’s about spring cleaning your finances—eliminating subscriptions and asset drift. I just went through some of this myself this quarter, so I wanted to share a few things with you.
Spring cleaning is usually associated with closets, garages, and getting homes ready to list. But it’s also worth doing the same thing with your finances a few times a year.
The first idea is subscription drift. A lot of us deal with this—streaming services and other subscriptions where money is just going out the door every month. I took a look at this myself. For example, a $49/month subscription doesn’t feel like much, but over the course of a year, that’s about $600. The problem is we usually have several of these, and they really add up.
In my case, we looked at things like YouTube TV. I also realized my 23-year-old had an AI subscription to Claude that I was paying for, and he was donating to a Substack in the UK. We cleaned that up and had him take over those costs.
So it’s worth reviewing your statements every once in a while. Also, when possible, look at switching from monthly to annual billing—there are often discounts that can save you money.
The goal isn’t to eliminate every subscription—it’s to make sure each one provides enough value to justify the cost, and to optimize how you’re paying for them.
Next is dormant or overlooked assets. I just went through this as well. We had an old 529 plan with some leftover funds after school, and we were able to pull that back.
Another easy win is checking unclaimed property. You can go to mycash.utah.gov, type in your name, and see if there’s anything there—old accounts, uncashed checks, refunds. If funds sit too long at financial institutions, they’re required to turn them over to the state. In Utah alone, over $500 million has been returned in unclaimed property.
You can also check for family members—parents or others—and see if anything comes up. It only takes a couple minutes.
Gift cards are another one. A lot of us have them sitting in drawers or in the car. Take some time to find those and actually use them.
Next is reducing administrative drag. That means reviewing things like beneficiaries on insurance policies. If they were set up a while ago, it’s worth making sure they still align with your current situation.
In some cases, you may not even need certain policies anymore. For example, we had a small whole life policy that no longer made sense for us, so we cashed it in and used it to pay for our kid’s last semester of tuition.
Credit cards are another area to review. Many of them have annual fees, and if you’re not using the rewards, there’s not much point in keeping them. We’ve simplified and mainly use one card—the Delta SkyMiles card—for travel rewards, which justifies the cost.
If you’re not using certain cards, you don’t necessarily need to close them—especially if they’re not costing you anything. You can just let them sit.
One thing to keep in mind is credit utilization. Try to keep your balance at or below 30% of your limit. So if your limit is $10,000, you don’t want to carry more than $3,000. That helps maintain a strong credit score.
So what’s in it for you? Doing a quick financial review once or twice a year helps you stay organized, eliminate unnecessary expenses, recover forgotten assets, and make sure everything is aligned with your current goals.
It puts you in a better financial position and gives you more clarity—and that clarity has real value.
Hope this was helpful. If you made it this far, thanks for watching. And as always, if there’s anything I can help with, don’t hesitate to reach out. Never too busy for you or your referrals.
Have a great month! We’ll talk to you soon. Take care.
