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Do you remember when you opened your first bank account? I do.

I remember the time my mom helped me open my very first savings account at Wells Fargo. My initial deposit was around $100, which I had saved up from my eighth birthday. I was always so excited to receive the bank statements and, even though it was only a few cents, I enjoyed watching my money slowly grow each month.

As I got older, I began using different banks and credit unions. My father served in the U.S. Navy; while I was a dependent, he insisted I open accounts with financial institutions that most civilians are not able to access. When I went to college, I closed out my Wells Fargo account and transferred everything into another big bank checking account. This was simply a matter of convenience — they had several ATMs on campus and a branch within walking distance of my apartment.

Co-workers tend to look at me as someone who dives head-first into projects and generally meets deadlines ahead of schedule, so they don’t realize my hidden secret.

I’m a recovering procrastinator.

When I was a student, I did everything at the last minute. I suppose the blessing is that it taught me to work fast. However, the stress made me miserable, and often the results were not my best work. Once I started my career, with so much more at stake, I made a conscious change.

No one wants to think about death — but ignoring the possibility doesn’t change the fact that you still need to prepare for the worst. A big part of this planning process is buying a life insurance policy.

In writing about how to save money on life insurance, I mentioned that you shouldn’t buy too much coverage. After all, if you buy more insurance than you need, you’re just throwing money away. But that begs the question…

If you’re planning out the rest of this year’s finances, chances are you’re paying attention to the IRA contribution limits for 2017. As a reminder, the limits shown for 2017 are NOT the numbers you will use to file your 2016 taxes in the next couple of months (you’ll want the 2016 numbers for that). These, however, are the numbers you will want to reference when planning your contributions for the rest of this year.

Take full advantage of the account(s)

The easiest way I’ve found to ensure that you max out your IRA (gotta take every advantage the government will give you!) is to simply spread out even contributions throughout the year. So, with this year’s IRA limit being $5, 500, you’ll want to contribute just over $458 a month, from January through December.