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You never know when you're going to end up in a financial or personal conundrum, so it's important to be prepared. Even if you have a strong sense of job security, a large chunk of change in the bank or think you're truly prepared for the worst, you should still work on being more prepared. To make sure you're ready, we've compiled these suggestions to add to and check off of your monthly financial checklist.

Save For A Rainy Day
Building and maintaining an emergency fund should be a part of your monthly budget. No matter how little or large your monthly salary, you should allocate a percentage of it to your Emergency Fund. You can schedule a specific amount every month that transfer or if you're monthly budget tends to be more unpredictable, determine a realistic amount that you can save and still cover all of your monthly expenses and transfer it to your savings when it's available.

To learn more about why you should save for a rainy day, read Why You Should Have An Emergency Fund.

Stick To The Budget
Review, or make, and follow your monthly budget to stay on top of your savings. Doing this is the key to achieving your monthly and long-term financial goals. To help you stay on track, you should begin tracking your fixed and variable expenses and saving so you don't end up low on funds and acquire more debt than you can manage. A Personal Financial Management (PFM) tool can help organize your finances and keep track of your spending. As a member of Alliant Credit Union, you get access to a PFM for free in Alliant Online Banking.

If you currently don't have a budget, studies have found that people who make annual budgets, instead of monthly, were better able to predict their spending. The reason is that we tend to overestimate our annual expenses due to being less confident with estimations. Find steps on how to create an annual budget in Budget For The Year, Not The Month.

Get Insurance
It's important that you have insurance coverage - from car, renters/homeowners, travel to health insurance. Having insurance should protect you from paying even more money and going deeper into debt if something happens. If something ever does happen unexpectedly and you don't have insurance, you'll quickly learn why the premiums are worth it.

Review Monthly Bills
When was the last time you wrote a check to pay a bill? Many of us are now using online banking to pay our bills which is a welcomed (and awesome) convenience, but there is a drawback - it may be too automatic. Here's another question for you, when was the last time you reconciled your checking account? Being able to quickly view how much money you have available in your account can cause you not to know where you're money is going or how much you're scheduled to spend later. Schedule time every month to review your utilities, bank statements and credit card statements so you don't lose a handle on your spending. It may also be a good idea to make this a weekly activity until you get a grasp on it all.

Live Within Your Means
Spending less than you earn can help you stick to your budget, reduce the likelihood that you'll go into debt and help you reach your savings goals sooner than later. If you need to downgrade, do it before you go deeper into debt. If you spend exactly what you earn, or more than you earn, you'll never get ahead and save enough for an unexpected problem. Living within your means is a major step in obtaining financial stability, so your first step is reducing your reliance on credit cards for anything but an emergency. (A night out, clothing and tickets to a game don't count as emergencies too!)

Know Your Net Worth
Knowing the difference between your assets and liabilities is important. Tracking it every month gives you a snapshot of your financial picture in one number to help you better understand your current financial situation, thus keeping you in tune with your money and progress in reaching your goals. It can also provide a timeline of how long it will take you to reach your goals, plus give you a little confidence boost to work harder towards reaching those goals.

Monitor Credit & Savings Interest
Add to your monthly financial to do list checking in on your credit union, bank and credit card company interest rates. If you see an opportunity to inquire about adjusting your interest rates, give them a call and request it. Monitoring will ensure that you are signed up for the right account and that you get the greatest return. Check in on our current rates.

Checking these items off your monthly financial checklist will help you be prepared for an unexpected financial or personal conundrum, plus get your spending in check to achieve your savings goals sooner rather than later.

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Sources: SavvySugar.com, Kiplinger.com, Consumerist.com