This post was sponsored by Chime as part of an Activation for Influence Central. I received complimentary products to facilitate my review.
We all know that we SHOULD get our finances organized, but the longer we wait the harder the task is. It always SEEMS like the perfect New Years resolution. Yet the average New Years resolution lasts only 11 days. What about when the school year ends and life slows down a bit? That will be the best time to organize our finances. Or maybe when school starts back up and there’s more free time. Oh I’ll tackle it over Thanksgiving Break when I have an extra day off. No, I’ll add it to my New Years resolution list ….
Sound familar?
It’s incredible how easy and justifiable it all sounds to delay delay delay! Instead of making organizing your finances a HUGE task ….
here’s our 6 SIMPLE steps to organize your finances
1 Stop Trying to do it ALL
Many of us, like me, weren’t blessed with perfect memory. I have to write EVERYTHING down …. like remembering to move money in to my savings account each month. Or remembering to deposit checks. Even if you’ve got a great system to remember it all, leave it to someone (or something) else that can remember it better.
Solution? Automate your checking & savings account. When you bank with Chime & enroll in Automatic Savings, every time you use your Chime card to make a purchase (or pay a bill), they’ll round the transaction amount to the nearest dollar & transfer that money from your spending to savings account!
If you set up direct deposit with your employer in to your Chime account you can get paid up to two days early.
2 Goodbye Budget
There’s very few of us that REALLY love making a budget, right? Or let me rephrase this for those budget lovers out there …. there’s very few of us who love STICKING to a budget, right? Especially when the budget is complex. Many categories for every type of expense. Personally my spending habits change each month based on what’s going on in my life. For example in December I’m spending more on presents, while in the summer I’m spending more on vacations. Since I don’t account for spending changes month to month, what seems advantageous when creating this monster of a budget, often derails quickly.
So instead of having a ridiculously detailed budget, determine how much take home money you have. Subtract the amount you need for essentials and savings each month. Then you’ll know how much discretionary money you have to spend as you want!
3 Go on a date …..
with yourself!
Hear me out. Whether it’s monthly or quarterly, schedule time (even just 30 minutes) to sit down by yourself to review your finances. Take a look at your checking account balance & savings account balance. Then check your credit score and take a look at your credit card statement. Try to find any unnecessary subscriptions or expenses to cut down.
Regardless if you choose to meet monthly or quarterly, make sure it’s consistent. These don’t have to be daunting deep dives on your finances (although they CAN be). As long as you’re consistent with the meetings and reviewing the essential, you’re on the right track!
4 Take the Trash Out
Holding on to financial documents can be a good piece of mind, but only if you truly know where everything is. Having boxes and folders filled with paperwork on your financials isn’t necessarily doing you any favors. Instead of having loads of paper documents, scan the documents and save them on a secure electronic file. This will remove all that physical clutter. This may not be the funnest task, but you’ll definitely be happy once it’s done. I’d also recommend signing up for all electronic statements of your account. Chime offers completely paperless options for your monthly statements.
5 Slim Down Your Wallet
As a huge lover of good deals, I’m always TEMPTED by credit card offers that sound too good to be true. And you know the saying, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. Plus keeping track of the requirements for all those supposedly high reward credit cards can be more challenging than it’s worth. Because remember, if you don’t hit the requirements, you don’t get the rewards!
I stick with one credit card and one debit card that I use regularly. I have a Chime debit card that I can even track via an iphone app.
6 Keep Your Identity
Identity theft is a serious thing. And it’s scary. Start checking your credit score regularly (I like to check mine twice a year). And make sure your passwords to all financial accounts are complex, random and never the same as any other passwords. When you bank with Chime, you’ll receive a Chime Visa® Debit Card, and an DIC insured Spending Account and Savings Account that can be managed straight through your smart phone. One of the great features of this is that you can be notified via app every time there’s a transaction on your account, so you always know what’s going on!
And that’s it! Organizing your finances don’t have to be painful as long as you get started!
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