👋🏽 Hello, Future You.

The LL Letter is a seasonal, weekly newsletter about practical finance for values-driven independent workers and business owners. Solid money hygiene is fundamental to the best version of the future financial you.

Below, I soften your CFO brain with curated finance-related bits from the web, a micro class on a money to-do, and reminders so you are ahead of financial mayhem.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up ​here​. Missed class? You can peruse the archive ​here.​

📰 Finance on the www.

• ​'NEETS' and 'new unemployables': Why some young adults aren't working (nbcnews.com)
• ​Americans say they need to earn $186K to live comfortably — but is it enough? (hill.com)
• ​His Ex Is Getting His $1 Million Retirement Account. They Broke Up in 1989 (WSJ)
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☑️ LL Money Do.

Review and update your beneficiaries on your bank accounts and life insurance policies annually.

For realz. If you didn't click on the link above, here it is again: His Ex Is Getting His $1 Million Retirement Account. They Broke Up in 1989 (WSJ).

Specifically, I want to call attention to this line,

I updated all my end-of-life paperwork for myself and my mom over the last year. The first thing the lawyer said was, "Update your beneficiaries on all your accounts. I can't do much about those allocations."

When I pulled all of mine, many were blank or with inappropriate beneficiaries and equally inappropriate percentages.

So, update your beneficiaries. Do it annually or whenever things change. Future life and family and friends will thank you.

Here are some of the accounts I recently updated:

• Personal Checking and Savings Accounts
• Business Checking and Savings Accounts
• SEP IRA
• Traditional IRA
• Roth IRA
• Brokerage Account
• Life Insurance policy

Also, while many of those accounts are at the same bank, each individual account required me to allocate percentages and beneficiaries.

Whatever you do, do not leave those lines bank. Name a Trust, allocate to a 501(c)3, do something, but do not leave it blank and leave it to probate, which can be exhausting and expensive.

Now, go update those beneficiaries because that's what CFOs do.

⏰ Reminders.

It's month-end.

Things to do:

• Download PDF'ed bank statements
• Review your bank statements for fraud
• Reconcile bank accounts
• Pay your bills
• Follow-up on outstanding invoices
• Save extra cash you have
• Review your credit score
• Review your business credit score

Important dates.

• Monday, September 16, 2024: 4th 2024 payment estimated federal and state taxes are due.
• Monday, September 16, 2024: Extended returns due for partnerships (including LLCs) and S-corp returns.
• Tuesday, October 15, 2024: Extended personal returns (Form 1040) and C-corp returns are due + contributions to solo 401(k) plans or simplified employee pension (SEP) plans for 2023 by self-employed if you received a filing extension.

If you learned something and know someone who could do the same kind of learning, please do both of us a solid and forward this to them.

Your fan,

LL
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Thanks for reading / Read my disclaimer /. You are on this list because you subscribed. If the LL Letter is not your thing, unsubscribe below / Preview in browser / Adulting / Forwarded to you? Sign up here. / Archive / Issue #109, Week 27, 2024