10 Financial Steps You Can't Afford to Put Off

6. Have you compared your insurance rates this year? Insurance is a competitive business and prices can change dramatically from year to year. The best way to make sure you are getting the best price on your insurance is to compare the rates once a year. Not doing so can cost you hundreds of dollars. This can also be done with a lot of other bills that you pay.

7. Have you checked your credit report this year? In the past you could make the excuse that it cost too much to get your credit report, but now that you qualify for a free credit report from each of the three credit rating agencies at annualcreditreport.com, there is no good excuse not to find out what is inside them. Mistakes in your credit report can cost you a lot of money.

8. Have you opened an online bank account? Online banks tend to pay a lot more interest than traditional banks when it comes to savings accounts. If your money is still sitting in a traditional bank earning a couple of percentage points interest at most, your failure to open one of the many online banking accounts available is costing you money. This is one of many banking moves you should make.

9. Do you check your tire pressure each month? Making sure that your tire pressure is correct is one way to help save on gas consumption. Yet many people, while aware of this, still don't spend the five minutes it takes to make sure their tire pressure is correct each month -- costing them not only money in wasted gas, but also the cost of additional wear on the tires.

10. Have you had a home energy audit? Energy companies want to help you save money by showing what areas of your house are leaking energy. Many will perform energy audits for free if you simply ask, while many more will do it for a nominal fee. You can even do it yourself online.

How did you score? If you are not a financial procrastinator, you should have answered "yes" to all of the questions. If you answered no to any of them, it should give you an idea on how much you procrastinate on your finances and provide a list of things that you know you need to get done.

Take the initiative and break yourself from the financial procrastination habit and vow to complete each step you haven't taken before the end of the month.