I don’t know about you, but I love the feeling of being organized. I mean really organized, from my house, to my car, to my closets, to my finances. I may be a bit compulsive, but for me less is more!

Here’s a quick and easy guide to helping you get a jump start to organize your finances and save you money! The process is really easy and relatively painless.

Let’s take it one easy step at a time. First go to your local office supply store and get a file cabinet with at least 2 drawers. If you want to spend less money, instead of the metal ones, you can buy the plastic ones that take either legal or letter sized files. I suggest you use letter sized for this task. Now you need the hanging file holders that will hold the actual folders. Ask the salesperson if you are unsure of what to get. You also nee to buy manila letter sized file folders (they come in a box with a bunch). Finally you will need to buy file label stickers.

And here we go… let’s begin my simply labeling each file. You have to put the hanging file holders into the file cabinet. Then stick the file labels on each file as we go along naming each category.

Here are the general categories, of course you can add any as you see fit.

1. mortgages (first and second)

2. auto loans

3. student loans

4. telephone bills

5. cellular bills

6. gas bill

7. trash bill

8. water bill

9. electric bill

10. oil bill

11. cable bills

12. taxes

13. credit cards

14. business expense receipts

15. personal receipts

16. grocery coupons

17. car insurance

18. health insurance

19. life insurance

20. miscellaneous

Let’s keep this simple. Pick a weekend or evening to do this. This is so liberating! You will feel refreshed when you see how much this clears out your desk and your mind.

Now input all the bill statements into the proper folders. You will be amazed at how this will help you each month.

Quick Tip: Did you know that you can call all your credit cards each month and request a lower interest rate? Many times they will say “sure”! It’s easier to keep on top of these now because they are all in the same folder. Also to help with this, make a list of all your credit cards, with the interest rates and balances, and put them in order of most important to pay off. As you get extra money, you know to pay off the highest interest rate one first! It feels great to cross off the top credit card as you pay it down to zero!

**Bottom line: more organized= happier home= more fruitful finances!