It's near the end of the year. Taxes return season is almost upon us and we need to get our finances in order. Before you know it, the holidays are here and then it's the new year. So, to help you get more organized, October Organizing challenge is to organize all areas involving money. I know, it doesn't sound fun. Well, it isn't, but it is necessary. To help you get started, here are some areas that you should look at this month. I added some posts I wrote related to these areas. Feel free to click on them and read more tips.
Review your system for paying bills. Is it streamlined? Can you work on getting some more payments on auto-pay? Do you like how your system is now?
Seven Money Management Tips to Make this Year the Best!
Review and write down how much you are saving. Check your 401K or SEP-IRA if you have one. Go through your liquid money as well, are you saving enough? Do you have a nest egg? Are you saving money for future vacations or other activities that are coming up? Are you saving money for a car or a new home?
Review your debt accounts and add them to a spreadsheet or a money managing software. In the spreadsheet included the current total amount due, what the minimum amount due is and a column for how much you usually pay. Also, include the day of the month it is due. Do you have too much debt? How should you bring down your debt?
Go through your receipts and paid bills. Make sure each receipt/paid bill is in the right place. Review your system and make sure you only have the current year in your current files. Remove all older years into a long-term storage box.
How Long to Keep Records
What to Keep: Tax Paperwork How Long to Keep
Gather all your credit cards, reward cards, birth certificates, and social security cards. Place them in one safe place. Any card that is associated with an account should be easily accessible and placed in a secure fireproof location.
Create a Reward and Credit Card Binder
Gather all "in the case of emergency" documents: Documents like wills, insurance policies, deed to the house, car ownership paper. Usually, people place these items in a filing cabinet so they are likely to come across them while reviewing receipts and paid bills. Pull them out now and create an important documents file.
I hope this inspires you to get your money accounts organized. Now, get on with it and start this month's organizing challenge! I recommend splitting the task over several weekends to not overwhelm yourself. Did I miss any areas? Please feel free to leave a message below.
I like your tip on creating an important documents file for emergencies. It's always good to be prepared as you tend to not be thinking straight when disaster strikes.
I am the same as Janet, I keep a running total of what we really have in our account as apposed to what it says online.
Thanks for sharing, Janet.
We must be on the same page Sabrina because my husband and I are doing this right now! I'm checking out MINT, YNAB (You Need a Budget, and Dave Ramsey has a new free software program I think. I'll let you know what we choose (probably in a blog post)! 🙂 One thing to add to what you said about reviewing your debt accounts. I always like to know the interest rates of the cards I use. We usually pay them off monthly but things happen and if you have an emergency you want to use the card with the lowest rate.
Great suggestion, Autumn. Interest rates are so important to track to help eliminate debt faster.