 TITLE: Organize Your Finances With Our Year-End Financial Checklist CONTENT: Pay Down Debt\n-------------\n*   Find out if you could save money by refinancing your mortgage, car loan or student loan.\n*   If you have high-interest debt, make a plan to pay it down. If you don't have enough extra money in your budget to make a big dent, consider these options:\n    *   Investigate 0% introductory balance transfer offer credit cards. Transferring high-interest balances to a card with a temporary 0% interest intro period can save you a lot of money in interest. The key is making a plan to pay off the balances before the intro period ends and you begin paying a standard interest rate.\n    *   Research debt consolidation loans and personal loans. These could offer lower interest rates than you're currently paying on credit cards and make payments easier to manage since you'll just have one payment to make each month.\n    *   Consider contacting a credit counseling agency to create a debt management plan for you.\n    *   Consider getting a second job to help pay down debt.\n*   Review your credit cards.\n    *   Could you benefit from a rewards card or cash back card? If you're looking into cards that provide extra perks, make sure you'll be able to pay off the balance each month—otherwise, you could pay more in interest charges than your rewards could earn you.\n    *   Make sure you're utilizing less than 30% of your available credit for each card and across all your cards at all times. Anything higher could hurt your credit scores.\n    *   Keep existing credit card accounts open even if you aren't using them; closing them may negatively affect your credit score. END