Getting Organized Financially

Money. It's a big, important word. You need to spend time getting organized with your money and finances.

Not having enough money and not knowing how much you have can cause a huge amount of stress in your life. Unpaid bills and unexpected expenses will cause sleepless nights, fights with your spouse and a feeling of worthlessness.

Everyone should make earning money, acquiring money; saving money and the action of getting organized with the money they have a priority.

Money is so important to your life that you can't neglect it without causing big problems.

There is just no way around that fact.

I experienced huge amounts of stress in my life due to putting my head in the sand about the status of my money.

I didn't spend enough time getting organized about my money and I wasn't able to communicate with my wife about money.

I believe that you need to simplify your money situation first. Keep it simple and boring until you have enough money to complicate it.

Concentrate on living frugally and minimizing monthly expenses to help accumulate an excess of cash.

It appears to me that people who are good with money spend time getting organized around all aspects of it. They concentrate on it and keep it simple. They are usually good at all aspects of making money, saving money, finding good deals, and keeping track of money.

I am using a simple bill paying system . It is really easy to use and super organized.

When I got my first full time job after graduate school I started making some real money. I was still living like a college student in a cheap apartment and an old paid for car.

Within a few months of working I had paid off about $2,000 of credit card debt that I had accumulated during college. I used the credit card to live on.

Then I was debt free except for some small student loans from my undergraduate degree. Those were manageable. I had gone to graduate school as a Teaching Assistant. All the tuition was paid for plus I received a monthly stipend of $660 live on. Since my rent was $240 a month, I was able to get by.

After the credit card debt was paid off I started to invest. I put money into the deferred compensation plan at work. I put money into savings accounts. I put money into mutual funds and I bought stocks.

I accumulated quite a bit of money in only a few years.

Then I bought a house, got married and had a baby. All that money was spent, quickly.

Now I see that getting organized with money worked great when I was in total control of my money. Once I was married it didn't work at all.

Money is a personal thing. Every adult should be in charge of their own money. Married people should control their own money. Mingling money between two people is a disaster.

It rarely works unless the couple is in total agreement about their money or they have so much money it doesn't matter. Donald Trump probably has his wife on an allowance. I don't think he would let her spend everything.

You will want to get better at shopping. You want to be a super shopper.

Getting organized with money means that you will want to develop what I call Life Money and Flex Money.

Life money is the money that you need to live on in a way that is satisfying to you. The more money you make, the more life money you will have and the better your life. It seems simple to me. A lot of people say that you don't need much money to live well. You've got to be kidding me. This is just a stupid thing to say when you don't have much money.

Flex money is the excess money you have a little bit beyond what you need to survive. This money is that extra money you don't spend right away or pay normal bills with or invest with. It's the money that is handy to have for whatever comes up. It is a few extra 20's in your wallet. It is a few hundred extra in your checkbook. It is the change in your car and the money in your drawer.

It is so nice to have this flex money for whatever comes up. Having it will lower your stress level.

One tip I ran across a year or so ago was to keep a price book. This book is used to track the prices you pay for food and other items you buy regularly. I used it for awhile and it did work quite well.

The big area for getting organized with money is the use of cash or credit or some combination. I prefer to use cash as much as possible but I do know a lot of people who rarely carry any cash, using credit for everything. They are quite good with money also. They just use the credit cards to their advantage.

Use what works for you. Just make sure you are getting organized with your money.

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