Organizing your Financial Life

Organizing your financial life can be a daunting and sometimes tedious task—but it’s one that you must stay on top of! Staying on top of your finances is not only key in understanding how much money you have, but also in understanding where your money is going and how much you’re spending and saving. The important thing in organizing your finances is first understanding what sort of organization you need to do, and how to go about that process! You may feel overwhelmed and uncertain as to where you should start or how to start, but that’s where these tips come in:

Review your Budget Often

Your budget is your roadmap to spending and saving money, and you want to refer back to this as often as possible. Also, it’s important to note that if you don’t have a budget, then take time and make one! Your budget should be flexible in that certain expenses may exceed others depending on the time of year or other factors. For example, when you’re budgeting for your utility costs, consider that heating bills will be higher during the winter, and vice versa for your air conditioning. Understanding where your money is going is the first step in organizing any financial records, so always start with your budget!

Keep your Bills in One Place

Bills don’t always arrive together at the same time, but it’s best to stay on top of your bills by keeping all of them together in one place. This allows you to quickly and easily take stock of what you owe, when you owe it, and why you owe it. With online banking and billing being the most popular way of organizing such things, it may seem counter-productive to keep paper records of your bills. However, paper records are a good way to ensure that bank statements and payments accurately reflect what you’ve paid! There’s no more frustrating than noticing a billing error but having no evidence of the error!

Keep Track of Bills that you are Expecting

This may seem like an obvious tip, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t have a list of incoming bills! Your budget can help you keep track of expected expenses, but keeping a list of expenses that you incur is a great way to ensure that there are no surprises! In addition, it means that it’ll be easier for you compare what you’re spending to what you’ve set aside in the expenses portion of your budget! This allows you to quickly made adjustments to your budget if you need to do so!