When was the last time you gave your finances a checkup?
Many of us check our account balance before making a purchase or opening a banking app when bills are due. But financial awareness goes beyond knowing how much money is available today.
It means understanding where your money is held, how it moves, what you are paying for, and knowing what safeguards you have in place. It also means noticing when something changes so that a small issue doesn’t become a larger one.
National Financial Awareness Day, observed August 14, offers a useful reminder to pause and look at the full picture. You do not need to reorganize your entire financial life in a day. Start by making sure you know these six things.
You do not need a complicated spreadsheet to understand your cash flow. Begin with a few basic questions:
For clients wanting to build a budget or who are planning out their expenses, American Riviera Bank’s Personal Finance Management (PFM) tool can help track expenses, set spending limits on categories, and monitor your purchases throughout the shopping season.
Reviewing several months of transactions can reveal patterns that are easy to miss one day at a time. You may discover that several large payments occur during the same week, that a seasonal expense is approaching, or that small recurring charges are adding up.
Once you understand the timing, you can make more informed decisions about bill due dates, spending, and savings.
Automatic payments can make financial life easier, but they can also continue quietly long after you have stopped using a service.
Review the payments connected to your checking account, debit cards, and credit cards. Look for:
Confirm that you recognize each company, still use the service and agree with the amount being charged.
Many debit and credit cards offer control features, such on/off access and spending and transaction limits, that can help you track and manage your funds.
When you opened your account, you received information about fees, interest, minimum balances, and other terms. Those details are worth reviewing periodically, particularly if the way you use the account has changed.
Make sure you understand:
Federal law requires financial institutions to provide disclosures about deposit-account fees, interest rates and other terms when an account is opened, upon request and when applicable terms change.
American Riviera Bank offers Simply Checking, a nationally certified Bank On account that is perfect for those who use their checking accounts frequently and don’t want to worry about maintaining high balances. It offers a variety of ways to avoid monthly service charges.
If you are uncertain about how a feature works, ask your ARB banker. A short conversation can help you understand whether your current account still fits the way you manage your money.
Review the ownership and authorized access associated with each account.
Is anyone else a joint owner? Does someone else have signing authority or access to online banking? Are there old connections that should be removed? If another person helps manage your finances, do you understand exactly what that person is authorized to do?
This is also a good time to review payable-on-death beneficiaries, where applicable. Marriage, divorce, births, deaths and other life changes can leave beneficiary information out of date.
Account ownership and beneficiary designations can affect both access to funds and deposit-insurance coverage. Speak with your ARB banker and appropriate legal or estate-planning professionals before making changes.
All ARB clients can enroll in Carefull free of charge, an online tool that can help you keep track of your money, plan for future events and offer peace of mind. Carefull’s LegacyKit is a great tool for estate planning and organizing important documents. Learn more about Carefull's LegacyKit.
Your credit reports contain information about your credit accounts, payment history and other financial activity. Errors, or accounts you do not recognize, can affect your ability to borrow and may signal identity theft.
Review reports from all three nationwide credit bureaus:
The bureaus now provide permanent access to consumers to obtain free weekly reports through AnnualCreditReport.com, the federally authorized source for free credit reports. Check for:
A credit report and a credit score are not the same thing. Your report contains the underlying information; a scoring model uses information from that report to calculate a score.
Scammers often create urgency. They may claim that your account has been compromised, say that a payment must be made immediately, or state that your money needs to be moved to keep it safe.
Carefull has a new ScamCheck tool which can help users determine if text messages and emails might be scam attempts. Try it inside the Carefull app.
The Federal Trade Commission warns that a caller asking you to move money for its protection or share a verification code is a scammer.
Even a small, unfamiliar transaction deserves attention. Fraudsters sometimes begin with a small amount before attempting a larger withdrawal or purchase.
Financial awareness does not mean having perfect finances or knowing every account balance from memory. It means knowing where to look.
You know how money enters and leaves your account. You understand your automatic payments and account terms. You know who has access, whether your beneficiary information is current, and how your deposits are insured. You review your credit and recognize common fraud warning signs.
Choose one item from this list and review it today. Then schedule time to address the others over the next several weeks. Small moments of attention can lead to greater clarity, stronger habits and more confident financial decisions.
Talk with an American Riviera Bank team member if you have questions about your accounts, available banking tools or ways to protect your financial information.
This article is provided for general informational purposes and is not intended as financial, tax, legal or estate-planning advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstances.
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