Money Management - How Organising Your Finances Can Reduce Stress
Organization is frequently overlooked as a financial management tool. Being prepared and managing your time well can help you save money!
- you'll have time to shop around for the best prices
- you'll be able to take advantage of discounts
- you can use the extra time to play with your children or catch up with friends
Where to start?
Your bills due for payment folder should be reviewed at least once a month using the following steps:
- Balance your cheque book so you know how much money you have available to pay accounts. (Ideally you should balance your cheque book weekly)
- Identify all bills due for payment and use your receipts to check for errors on any accounts. Put aside any accounts you plan to query
- Total the amounts due and check whether you have sufficient funds to pay all the accounts
- If there is not enough money to pay everything then prioritise your accounts. Always pay utilities and mortgage first, next accounts which offer discounts. Ring the remaining creditors and negotiate extended payment terms, or return the goods
- Record all the payments in your cheque book or computerised system, and recalculate your balance. Transfer funds as necessary
- File the bills for future reference
You can save money and simplify your life by establishing electronic systems
This doesn't mean rushing out to buy the latest computer program - it can all be done cheaply and simply.
Identify your regular expenses such as rent, electricity, phone, insurance and even credit card payments. If you pay any of these by cheque, now is the time to make changes. You can set up an automatic payment with your own bank or ring your supplier and ask for a form to authorise the company to make direct debits. The advantages are:
- never miss discounts
- no more late payment penalties
- reduced bank fees
- save time and energy so you can go out and have some fun!
These tips will help you make peace with your paper war and save you some money.
Talia Mana is a Health Psychologist, inspirational speaker and author who specialises in personal growth and wellness. She is the founder of the Centre for Emotional Well-Being which can be found at www.taliamana.com
Her first book, Romancing the Frogs: A Singles Guide to Love & Happiness helps people find love. Her second book The Art of Calm: Freedom from Stress and Worry offers more than 100 tips on stress management and is based on her own experiences with stress-related illness. Talia is currently researching emotional eating and mental health issues.
You can visit her blog at taliamana.blogspot.com
About the Author
For a free forum on everything related to emotional health and emotional eating visit www.taliamana.com/forum
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