How to Get Financially Organized
- 1). Know what your outgoing expenses are. Don't forget to include ALL of your monthly expenses (entertainment, food, gas, car maintenance, etc.)
- 2). Create a list either on paper or a spreadsheet (see the link for Google Docs - a free word processing and spreadsheet program from Google) that contains each obligation, the due date, account number, address and phone number of the payee. Keep this information handy so that you don't have to search every time that you need to reference it.
- 3). As much as possible try and combine your accounts (checking - including electronic bill payment), saving, investing and credit card). Charles Schwab is a great place to do this - they have relatively low account minimums and their customer service is great.
- 4). Another idea to consolidate your accounts would be to open a checking and savings account with ING Direct.
The cool thing about ING Direct is that when you open a savings account with them, you can create sub accounts for different purposes. That way you can save small amounts each month and see all of the individual balances as they grow.
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