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5 Ways to Organise Your Finances - June 2019
If you haven't balanced your bank accounts in a while, lose your incoming bills before they're paid or put off filing your tax returns because it's just too difficult to get everything together, then it's probably time to organise your finances.
Here are 5 quick ideas:
1. Consolidate Your Credit Cards
Rather than having a bunch of different credit cards, consolidate all of your expenses on one single credit card, preferably one that has a low interest rate, and perhaps one that offers bonus points or airline mileage on every dollar you spend. This can result in less confusion over which card to use, it can give you a better idea of how much debt you're accumulating, it may give you more back for your dollar, and you'll only have one credit card payment per month.
2. Use the Cheapskates Bill Paying System
As soon as you get bills in the mail, they should immediately be placed into a bill paying system. All of your pending bills are then ready to be paid once a week, or once every 2 weeks, etc. Use that same bill paying system to store paid bill summaries, being sure that each category is in its own folder or envelope. Doing this makes it very simple to look something up when necessary.
3. Organise Your Expenses as You Spend
Want to know how much you spend each month, so you can determine your monthly spending budget? As you spend, just record that expense. This can be called your Expense Summary. A computer program like Quicken is great for this purpose, or you can certainly do this with paper and pen and a small spiral notebook.
4. Balance Your Bank Accounts Monthly
In order for you to have a good idea of how much money is sitting in your bank accounts, what bills have cleared, and any errors that you, or your bank, may have made, you must balance your bank accounts. It really doesn't take that long, if you balance your accounts the same day your statement arrives from the bank, each month.
5. Keep Your Tax Related Stuff Together
Right before tax season, you'll start to receive tax related information from your job, your bank, etc. Keep all of these tax-related papers in a labelled file folder. This way, when you're ready to do your taxes, you won't have to search for the papers you need.
Here are 5 quick ideas:
1. Consolidate Your Credit Cards
Rather than having a bunch of different credit cards, consolidate all of your expenses on one single credit card, preferably one that has a low interest rate, and perhaps one that offers bonus points or airline mileage on every dollar you spend. This can result in less confusion over which card to use, it can give you a better idea of how much debt you're accumulating, it may give you more back for your dollar, and you'll only have one credit card payment per month.
2. Use the Cheapskates Bill Paying System
As soon as you get bills in the mail, they should immediately be placed into a bill paying system. All of your pending bills are then ready to be paid once a week, or once every 2 weeks, etc. Use that same bill paying system to store paid bill summaries, being sure that each category is in its own folder or envelope. Doing this makes it very simple to look something up when necessary.
3. Organise Your Expenses as You Spend
Want to know how much you spend each month, so you can determine your monthly spending budget? As you spend, just record that expense. This can be called your Expense Summary. A computer program like Quicken is great for this purpose, or you can certainly do this with paper and pen and a small spiral notebook.
4. Balance Your Bank Accounts Monthly
In order for you to have a good idea of how much money is sitting in your bank accounts, what bills have cleared, and any errors that you, or your bank, may have made, you must balance your bank accounts. It really doesn't take that long, if you balance your accounts the same day your statement arrives from the bank, each month.
5. Keep Your Tax Related Stuff Together
Right before tax season, you'll start to receive tax related information from your job, your bank, etc. Keep all of these tax-related papers in a labelled file folder. This way, when you're ready to do your taxes, you won't have to search for the papers you need.
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