Fall Organization: Is Being Disorganized Keeping You Broke?

In general, life is more expensive when you are disorganized. You wind up spending money on things you wouldn’t normally, blowing your budget, and going into debt. Here are a few fall organization tips to help you get your finances on track.

How Disorganization Can Impact Your Finances

Being disorganized can impact your finances significantly. First, disorganization can lead to serious financial problems is not being able to stay on top of your bills. For instance, you get nailed a late charge for your electric bill but you are sure you’d paid it. However, because you have no organization system for your finances, you missed making the payment. You simply don’t know when your money is coming or going.

This type of disorganization can also lead you to make impulse buys. Consider this: you have had your eye on a new couch. Because your finances aren’t organized, you don’t save the money for the couch. One weekend, there is a great sale and, instead of getting your budget organized and saving up, you purchase the couch on credit (that you don’t really have). Now each month, for the next 24 months you have a payment due, that was unplanned.

Also, having disorganized finances generally means you won’t have a plan to pay that debt off and no effective way of doing so. Eventually, you’ll find yourself drowning.

Lastly, consider the feelings about money. Did you grow up having very little money in the family? Did you get the hand me downs of your older siblings? These feelings may cause a lack of respect for money. You may feel money is owed to you and spend with reckless abandon. Thus, financial disorganization becomes a way of life

 

Fall Organization Tips for Managing Your Money-Part 1

So, how do you keep your finances organized and become more likely to reach your financial goals? Here are a few tips and habits to adopt this fall to better organize your finances.

1. Get rid of stockpiled financial documents. Having clutter can make it hard to get organized but the IRS makes people a bit nervous to throw away financial documents. You can safely shred and throw away any credit card statements that don’t include deductible purchases and are more than a month old. You can also trash utility bills, phones bills, receipts, deposit slips, and bank statements more than a month old (as long as you aren’t deducting anything).
2. Make a digital copy. Once you’ve filtered through your documents, make digital copies of the ones you need and back them up.
3. Keep your bills in one place. If you still get physical copies of bills, keep them all in the same place and create a way to track whether or not they’ve been paid. Check out this bill organizer.
4. Develop a routine. Review your budget once a month and have a set day you review and pay bills each week. Having a set date and time will help you remain in control. It will also make sure everything is paid on time and you’re investing your money in the right places.

Fall Organization Tips for Managing Your Money -Part 2

1. Create a good environment for organizing your finances. When you handle your finances, create a desirable environment. Play some music or light a pumpkin scented candle (or the candle of your choice). Making your finances enjoyable will help you want to better manage your money.
2. Use tools that are more aesthetically pleasing. If you are using a physical calendar or physical sorting of any sort, make sure it looks nice. This will also make you less reluctant to handle your finances. For instance, this planner has coloring pages. It would make it fun to review your budget each month.
3. Create firm boundaries and set dates for reaching your goals. Don’t allow yourself a whole lot of wiggle room when it comes to your budget and setting goals. The more room you give yourself, the less likely you’ll be to stick to your budget.

If you want to save more efficiently, Sign up for Digit today. This app can help you automate your money goals.

These are just a few organization tips to adopt this fall to better manage your finances. Do you have a tip you’d add to the list? Let us know in the comments!

Read More

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• 10 Financial Reasons You Should Declutter Your House
• Why the First Step to Saving is Giving Stuff Away
• A Life Without Debt: Am I a More Organized, Responsible Person?
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