You Can Organize Your Financial Life

Piles of receipts on the dining room table. Bank statements on the desk in the spare room. You didn’t plan on your financial and personal records ending up in a free-for-all, but that’s what’s happened. How you wish someone would organize your stuff!

Good news! There is someone who can get your financial records in order. And that someone is you! Because you might need some help in the organizing department, here are some tips for simplifying your financial life.

Decide on a system.

You can organize your information by topic or by year, whichever method is easier for you. Use colored folders to hold similar information, including tax documents, investment reports, bank statements, etc. Label everything so you can find it easily. Keep all your records in one place, such as a fireproof safe or a filing cabinet.

Create a back-up system.

Scan critical financial documents before filing them. Keep them in a password-protected computer file or on a removable drive or store them in the cloud. Shred any documents with sensitive information that you no longer need.

Put your financial life online.

Paperless billing and electronic delivery of bank and investment statements reduce clutter and prevents you from misplacing important bills and documents. Establish online bank, credit card, phone, cable and utility accounts to make payments. Setting up automatic bill pay can further simplify your finances. Make sure you have sufficient money in your bank account when payments are deducted.

Consider a safe deposit box.

You can store many critical documents that you don’t often need and keep them safe from fire and theft. Keep copies of stored documents in case you need to refer to them quickly.

Share your information.

Tell someone you trust where your information is located and how to access it. Share a list of your accounts with password information so that a person can retrieve them in an emergency.