Declutter Your Finances in Five Steps

This post is by David Boyd of CreditCardCompare.com.au

Decluttering might not seem like an important item on the old to-do list. However, whilst it can make the world of difference to your living space, wardrobe (closet), and kitchen you might be surprised at the difference a little bit of work can do in the overall organization of your personal finances.

With a little planning, a few modifications, and a couple of readjustments on your part, you could find that dealing with your finances becomes a much more efficient as well as effective process. Here are a couple of tips that could make it easier for you to get a grasp on your financial life.

1. Reduction and combination

By reducing the number of bills and statements you receive, you may begin to get a better handle upon your finances. Items like newspaper and magazine subscription bills and offers alone can begin to inundate you after a while.

Add in items like the Internet, cable, utilities, health insurance, car insurance, homeowners insurance, mortgage, property tax, and lawn service bills, and add to all those the bills and statements for which you might receive multiple issues of for things like phone (if you have several services or providers for your family phones), credit cards, bank and retirement statements, and similar items, and you could be talking about dozens of items each month that you’re having to sort through.

By doing things such as bundling phone, Internet, and cable services, asking to be billed for certain items on a bi-monthly or quarterly basis, or just ditching some of those items like the magazine and newspaper subscriptions, you can begin to reduce the amount of clutter that arrives in the mail. You will definitely want to consider requesting online notification for certain bills and bank statements.

2. Know your bills

Knowing when your bills and statements typically arrive, as well as when they are due, can help you better keep your financial affairs organized. The fewer items you have to do this with, the easier it makes it to track them, especially when those items arrive on a consistent basis.

If you find that you have a difficult time knowing when you bills are likely to arrive or when they are due, consider using a calendar. This can make it easier to track your finances and help you plan out payment systems or just know what you might need to prepay before you go away on vacation for several weeks.

3. Payroll planning

Sometimes when it comes to your personal finances, it’s just easier to have someone else do the work for you. While automated bill payment can be helpful, it might also reduce your ability to catch errors or know when money is coming out of your account, which could leave you with costly overdraft fees

But when it comes to the items you may be able to have deducted directly from your paycheck, such as health insurance or a health savings account, retirement savings, direct deposit payments to bank accounts, and similar items, payroll deduction could make your financial life much more efficient and easier to handle.

4. Cut credit cards

While you probably don’t want to eliminate credit cards altogether, if you are only using one for the majority of your purchases, it can make it much easier to keep track of purchases as well as help to reduce financial clutter.

Just utilizing one credit card can reduce the number of statements you receive each month, make it easier to track spending and find discrepancies or errors, as well as remember what interest rate or finance charges you are being charged on that particular card.

5. Make a simple spreadsheet

With all the personal finance sites out there to help you get organized by way of the Internet, it doesn’t necessarily mean you need such bells and whistles to help you declutter your finances.

Financial tracking and organizing software may be as simple as a Excel spreadsheet or Google Doc. The main thing is that you understand the software you are using and that it facilitates the decluttering and knowledge of your finances. All the charts, graphs, and nifty graphics in the world won’t necessarily help you organize your finances. Your ability to make efficient use of those items however, can.

These are my tips for decluttering your finances. What others can you add?

David Boyd writes for CreditCardCompare.com.au where users can compare credit cards, including balance transfer offers that help simplify and declutter your monthly finances.