While investors were recently fretting over post-Fed rate hike volatility, I recently opened my car trunk, and it wasn’t a pretty picture. I discovered towels, jumper cables, soccer ball, beach chair, research reports, and even a box of Kleenex. The hodge-podge of items had been accumulating for months, but the path of least resistance to solving this problem was procrastination. It didn’t take much effort, but eventually I transformed my portable dumpster into a clean, useful space of organizational Zen.

Many investors have a similar problem with their scattered finances…an IRA here, 401(k) there, trust account, savings account, bank CD, insurance policy, and not to mention a slew of other spouse accounts. Is there any cohesive strategy behind these accounts? Generally, the answer is a resounding “no”. Like a messy car trunk, a sloppy controlled investment portfolio with no objective, time horizon, or defined risk tolerance could drive your retirement off-road into a ditch.

With the year coming to a close, and a finish to this season’s holiday parties and gift opening, often times there is a brief calm before the New Year’s storm. This is a perfect time to clean out your cluttered financial trunk to make sure you are on track to meet your retirement goals.

The first step in de-cluttering your financial mess is determining what is your targeted retirement number (see Getting to Your Number). Doing so requires you to calculate the following:

Combining this data with your risk tolerance and expected return should help you ascertain whether your retirement goals are realistic or overly optimistic.

After you find a reasonable dollar figure target for retirement you can give yourself a pat on the back, but the financial organizing game is not over yet. You still need to incorporate various important facets of financial planning when arranging your fiscal affairs. Here are some financial planning priorities on which to focus: