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Blog: If Your Money Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy
 If Your Money Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy. Stop the World for One Week So I Can Get Caught Up!
Just think if no mail came for one week, no phone calls, no bills to look at (or maybe you could actually look at them) if the world stopped for one day or week. I have given you some great tips in my last few blogs about how to get some immediate control on your finances and last week I gave you the key to seeing the "health" of your money by looking at a couple pieces of paper. (If you haven't read the last blogs and I've peaked your interest just click on the links below.) So if the world is not going to stop how do we get caught up on our finances? Here are three more ways to do that and reasons for doing so.
- Take a "vacation" in your own home and get some of those things on your list done. Just like being on vacation stop your mail for the week and get caught up on all the other mail and bills lying around. How is this connected to your finances? You can start looking and filing your bank statements and work on your budget. Again, this is sometimes a big undertaking and having someone set up Quicken and your accounts on Quicken like I have done for my clients accelerates the financial organizational process. You need to know what's going on with your finances before you can really get some good control and management.
- You could be a victim of fraud and not even know it. Last week I told you I would expand on my own fraud story. Approximately seven years ago, I opened my bank statement the day it arrived in the mail. Since I kept a close eye on our finances the amounts on my statement looked very odd. The closer I looked the more I realized almost $2000.00 of fraud had happened on our account! Our check protection kicked in so we did not "feel" the affects of it. That statement ended just a couple days prior to my receiving it and they were still using a debit card that must have come in the mail a week or so earlier and someone stole it out of the mailbox. There was a ring of crooks doing this in Greenville at that time. We became one of the victims. Looking at my statement right away enabled me to stop their spending spree and also the bank helped me significantly because they were impressed that I had caught it so quickly. You can prevent spending too much or someone else spending too much on your account by checking that bank statement right away! Remember from last week knowing what to look at on that statement can let you know where your money is very unhealthy and mismanaged in just a few minutes.
- Look forward, not always backward. Don't dwell on what hasn't been done or what you need to catch up on. Use some of my previous tips on using cash to get your finances in shape over the next few months so by January you can have a new slate in many respects. Use small financial goals as building blocks to reach larger goals by preplanning your finances. You will stay within your means and feel so much better next year. If you feel overwhelmed by all the bills you've accumulated pay the big ones first and work your way down. But know what bills you have and don't ignore them!
If you are ready to get a big jump start on your financial organizing a financial program that works very similar to how I help my client's budget is by Dave Ramsey, Financial Peace University. You can find his stuff online and he has a call-in show on the radio in most cities. He is very practical and helps you put a plan together quickly and gets you on the cash basis and guides you in eliminating your debt. Check it out! Since the world won't stop, get your world to slow down by realizing your world is right in your own four walls and you can get control. Do what you must to get you finances in order…it will only encourage organization everywhere in your life. When my finances haven't been tended to I feel disorganized everywhere…it DOES affect you more than you know! And don't we know if your money ain't happy, ain't you happy either.
posted on: 10/31/2007 11:30:00 AM by Triste Horrell
category: Finances
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If Your Money Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy
by Triste Horrell
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About Triste:
Being an organizing expert makes one want to be a "showroom" in all areas of life. However reality can hit hard when you're a mother of small children and a military wife and own an organzing business. Of course Triste would like to have a picture perfect Better Home and an even Better Garden. Throw a Pottery Barn in the backyard for exceptional creative time to become the wiz-woman for all the ideas and inventions that the world could not live without. But Triste has settled on the fact of telling herself "I can be perfect in my mind and no one can mess up my space there!" In reality Triste is very self-motivated and has true business accomplishments like having SYSTEMIZE since 1997, the first home and business organizing firm in the state of South Carolina. She has been repeatedly recognized in her Greenville, SC area for her organizing expertise and makeovers on local NBC and FOX news, Greenville News, local magazines such as Greenville Magazine and Upstate Parent and NPR radio. She has turned people's lives around by focusing on what she calls the "four building blocks of being organized" consisting of space, time, financial and personal. This is even represented in her business logo. "That's what I'm in business for, turning people's lives around!" Also applying her popular 3 Steps to Systemize have not only organized her clients but KEPT them organized for years.
Triste's Website:
www.systemize4u.com
Downtime Activities
- Reading Magazines
- Spending time at our cottage
- Keeping our Westie pretty
- Putting tealights around after the kids are in bed
- Adventures with my awesome hubby
- Making microwave smores...just for me
1 graham cracker, broken in half 1 small piece of chocolate 1 big marshmellow On one side of cracker put piece of chocolate and marshmellow on top. Place in microwave and heat for approx. 17 seconds (while cooking replace marshmellow on top of chocolate if needed). Put other half of cracker on top, eat and enjoy and watch out for oozing chocolate!
My Organizing Tool-Box
- Time - Outlook
This is a great way to keep papers off the desk and track where you need to go, task list, jot down quick notes on the virtual "post-its, keep up with contacts in the virtual Rolodex
- Personal Finances - Quicken
This simple yet practical program keeps your bank accounts in tact...did I mention simple?!
- Business Finances - QuickBooks
I have used this program for years and have set many clients up on it. It is a must for keeping track of business transactions and keeping tax time easy...push a few buttons and out come the reports, your done and your tax preparer loves you.
- Space - turntables
I love these things! You can put them in cabinets, the fridge, garage, and closets. They are inexpensive, easy to find and available at any discount store and you can even find fancier ones. If you are not sure what they are, they are the white (or other fancier kinds) and spin around like a lazy susan, you can have a single or double-tier one for spices.
- Personal - Magazines and Internet
I love to look at magazines and the internet for good articles on personal development, pictures for decorating inspiration and fun projects to do with my family. I keep my magazine subscriptions to a minimum (3) so I can read them and enjoy each one. I look for things on some of my favorite websites for whatever fancies me at that time.
- Online Recipe Boxes
Use these on some of your favorite websites, bring the laptop into the kitchen while the recipe is up and you never have to have the paper clutter. One of my and my husbands favorites is Williams-Sonoma.
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www.OnlineOrganizing.com is a service mark of Bradford, LLC.
