Your Financial Planning Calendar for 2020

Whether or not you make financial New Year’s resolutions, you no doubt want to improve your bottom line in the coming year.

(Image credit: Illustration by Carmi Grau)

Whether or not you make financial New Year’s resolutions, you no doubt want to improve your bottom line in the coming year. With that in mind, we have some suggestions for bolstering your finances each month, ranging from budgeting in January to checking up on your insurance coverages in April to reviewing your estate plan in October.

March, as the bull market approaches its 11th anniversary, looks like a good time to reflect on your investing philosophy and tolerance for risk. And if your charitable giving has been thrown for a loop by the new tax law, consider setting up a donor-advised fund. We’ve slated that for December.

Lisa Gerstner
Contributing Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance

Lisa has spent more than15 years with Kiplinger’s Personal Finance and heads up the magazine’s annual rankings of the best banks, best rewards credit cards, and financial-services firms with the best customer service. She reports on a variety of other topics, too, from retirement to health care to money concerns for millennials. She has shared her expertise as a guest on the Today Show, CNN, Fox, NPR, Cheddar and many other media outlets around the nation. Lisa graduated from Ball State University and received the school’s “Graduate of the Last Decade” award in 2014. A military spouse, she has moved around the U.S. and currently lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband and two sons.