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Blog: Minimizing Financial Clutter
 52 WEEKS TO FINANCIAL ORGANIZATION: #4 – Get a Bill-Paying System
· If you forget to pay your bills so frequently that your creditors assume you are dead
· If your late fees and finance charges are approaching the amount of the national debt
· If you misplace your bills so much that you suspect your dog must be eating them (along with your child's homework)
· If your credit score is lower than the average high temperature in February at the North Pole
· Or if you just want to have one less thing to worry about…
…Then you just might need to create a bill-paying system.
A bill-paying system is a specific set of steps you will take to process and pay your bills on a regularly-scheduled basis. I will tell you about different kinds of systems in the coming weeks. For now, however, all you need to know are the four basic elements of any bill-paying system:
1. Sort
Ask any professional organizer. S/he will tell you that the first step of any organizational process is sorting. When you open your mail, you need to sort it into piles, based on the type of action you need to take on each item. Therefore, your bills will go into a pile of their own, because the action you need to take on them is to PAY them.
2. Hold
After you've sorted your bills into a pile, you need to hold them in some sort of container until you are ready to pay them.
3. Schedule
You need to create a bill-paying schedule. The easiest thing to do is to schedule bill-paying time to coincide with payday. (It's always helpful to have money in the bank when you go to pay your bills!) Seriously, try to pair bill-paying time with some other event, such as payday, that will remind you to pay your bills. But don't just rely on your memory! Actually schedule what one of my clients calls "Desk Time". Write it on your calendar as an appointment with yourself, or schedule it as a recurring task, if you use an electronic planner system.
4. Pay
Unfortunately, your bills won't pay themselves. When bill-paying day arrives, sit down at your desk and pay those bills.
Your Homework For This Week
· Open your mail every day. (This needs to become a lifelong habit, so start now!)
· Separate your bills (anything related to money you must pay) from the rest of the mail.
· Designate a file folder, basket, bin, box, or some other specific container to hold ONLY your unpaid bills.
· Label the container "Bills to Pay"
· Schedule a day THIS WEEK to pay bills. Write it on your calendar.
· Pay your bills on your scheduled bill-paying day.
posted on: 2/1/2009 11:30:00 AM by Katherine Trezise
category: Finances
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Minimizing Financial Clutter
by Katherine Trezise
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About Katherine:
Katherine Trezise is president of Absolutely Organized, based in Baltimore, MD. She is president-elect of the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization. Katherine holds a masters degree in business administration, is a Certified Professional Organizer® and a Certified Professional Organizer in Chronic Disorganization®. Absolutely Organized specializes in helping people organize their homes, paperwork and financial records to make room in their lives for the things, people and activities that are most important to them.
Katherine's Website:
www.absolutely-organized.com
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