Your June Financial To-Do List

If you started the year by making smart resolutions to get your finances in order, June is a good month to see if you're on track.

This is also a good time to plan for some summer travel expenses you might not think about such as tipping. And, with tax season now over, it's a good time to take steps to reduce your tax bill next year. June is also the month to get a free credit report from one of the major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) and check it for errors and signs of ID theft. And any month is a good time to buy goods on deep discount; below we list the products that will be especially good deals in June.

Review Your Budget

Are you on track with your budget? If you put creating a budget on your financial to-do list in January, but never quite got it done, there's still time. Start by creating a "money plan"—a complete record of your income and expenses on a month-by-month basis. 

For help you can use a free online budgeting program that will walk you through the entire process, including Mint and Yodlee MoneyCenter. Note that if you use these services, your financial information, user name, and password are housed on the company’s servers, not on your computer. If you’re not comfortable with that, you might want to purchase budgeting software such as Quicken. Amazon sells Quicken Starter Edition 2015 for about $40.

Factor Tipping Into Your Summer Travel Plans

Make sure you have extra cash to hand out on your summer travel. At the airport, Diane Gottsman, a national etiquette expert, suggests you give a porter $5 for one bag and $3 to $5 for each additional bag he takes to a curbside check-in.

For taxi service, she says to tip 10 to 20 percent of the bill and for a town car or limo services, 15 to 20 percent if a gratuity is not included. Give the courtesy shuttle drivers who help you with your bags $1 to $2 per bag. 

At a hotel, tip a bellman $5 per bag at a five-star establishment, $1 to $2 per bag elsewhere. Give a hotel maid $2 to $10 per night and a doorman $2 to $5, again depending on the type of hotel.

For theater tickets or dinner reservations, tip a concierge $5 to $10 (but $20 or more if they're difficult to get). Parking valet: $3 to $5 each time you pick up your car. 

If you're taking a cruise, consider giving cabin stewards $5 per night; baggage service, $2 per bag; bartender, 15 to 20 percent of your tab; dining-room waiter, $4 to $5 per day. But check the cruise company's tipping policy on its website before you sail to make sure it doesn't have any tipping restrictions or specific guidelines. 

If you're heading overseas, the free Global Tipping app for the iPhone provides advice on how to tip in 30 countries. The free Global Tip Calculator Pro app for the Android provides tipping advice based on the total amount of a bill for over 140 countries.

Get Your Taxes Organized for Next Year

If you make quarterly tax payments, a must for your June to-do list is to make a payment on June 15.

But whether or not you pay quarterly, take another look at this year's return to learn some important tax planning lessons that can make tax time next year a less stressful and less costly process.

You can adjust your withholding, for example, if you got a big refund this year. Also consider ways you can get organized, increase your contributions to tax-advantaged accounts, find the best savings rates (or shift some of those assets into other investments), and more.

Get a Free Credit Report

Four times a year requesting a copy of your credit report should be on your financial to-do list. This month, obtain a copy from one of the credit bureaus that you didn't choose earlier in the year at annualcreditreport.com. 

Credit reports play a central role in your financial life. They’re used by businesses not only to qualify you for loans and insurance but also to determine what interest rates and premiums you’ll pay. Your credit file is also an important tool for detecting some types of identity fraud.

Once you have your credit report, comb through it for errors, such as paid-off loans that aren't marked paid; credit cards that you closed but whose coding says they were closed by a creditor (a bad mark); and bills that you paid but are still listed as collections. 

You have the right to dispute erroneous information on your credit report, and the credit bureaus have a responsibility to investigate. You can dispute errors through their websites or by U.S. mail and phone. The procedure is outlined on each credit bureau's website.

Also look for unfamiliar accounts that could be an indicator of ID fraud. If it is fraud, you have the right to have that information blocked from your report if you provide the bureau with a copy of an ID-theft report filed with a law-enforcement agency.

Buy Products on Deep Discount

Consumer Reports analysts track prices year-round, so we can tell you when products will be on deep discount. If you're looking for some new sporting goods like bikes or running shoes to take advantage of the warm weather, you can find them on deep discount in June. Buying a new treadmill or elliptical on sale will also help you stay in shape. Time to spruce up your indoor living spaces? Expect to see great deals on furniture in June.

And, just in time to record your family's summer vacation, graduation, or wedding, camcorders will be marketed down this month. 

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