Take Five: Financial Organizing Tips

Everyone wants to be more organized, especially with their finances.  Unfortunately, letting things pile up tends to make things more disorganized then ever.  As with the previous tips (see Take Five: fitness, healthy eating, and being green), these are intended to take very little time. Unfortunately, they may take longer than 60 seconds, but not much.  The key is to plan and do a bit each day so that things don’t get out of hand:

–Automate financial transactions — through direct deposit, automatic withdrawals for retirement funds, and online bill pay. Not only does this save time from waiting in line or the hassle of losing checks and things; it’s also a good way to have printable records and downloading onto spreadsheets.

–Fill out reimbursements or refunds right away — I am bad about letting this slide, but the longer a rebate sits, the less likely I am to send it in and the more likely I am to lose receipts.  If you itemize deductions or fill out a schedule C at tax time, it’s good to organize the receipts as they come in.  Tape them onto a full size sheet of paper and write in any brief info (such as trip or date) that will help during tax time.

–Consolidate your accounts if practical – this will minimize the number of due dates on credit cards and allow for a snapshot of your financial health to be easily calculated.  When I was younger, I thought having a multitude of accounts was good, but now, I only diversify if necessary and prudent (like making sure all bank accounts have full FDIC coverage).

–Check out various online tools — there are a number of tools that are free and for a fee that help to organize budgets, balance sheets, and retirement planning. Many of these can link directly to your financial institution if you wish, updated with the most recent activities.

–Learn how to use things like bookmarking and other tools – I find articles on personal finance that I want to read all the time and blogs that I plan to revisit.  Without bookmarking, I would lose them all the time.

shared at Tuesday’s Tips, Frugal Friday, and Works for Me Wednesday