Please note: I am not a financial advisor. If you need financial advice, please seek someone who is professionally trained in this area.
As an organizing expert focusing on helping women, I’ve worked with countless clients who feel anxious and overwhelmed when it comes to getting their financial house in order. Between not having a budget, carrying various forms of debt, and lacking long-term investing and savings plans, it’s easy to feel buried and unsure of how to dig your way out.
I completely understand the immense stress this can cause. But I want you to know that you can get organized, take control, and create financial stability – one step at a time. While the process requires diligence and patience, the payoff in peace of mind and confidence is so worth it!
In this post, I’ll share my top tips for organizing your financial life, step-by-step. My practical strategies come from both personal experience getting my own finances in order after years of feeling scattered, as well as the many people I’ve successfully helped overhaul their money management.
Know that no matter how disorganized you feel right now, you can implement systems and structure to reduce anxiety and gain control. Let’s get started!
My Simple 5-Step System for Organizing Your Financial Life
Step 1: Start by Gathering All Your Financial Paperwork
The first step is doing financial triage by gathering every piece of paperwork related to your money. This includes bank statements, bills, credit card statements, loan documents, investment accounts, tax returns, insurance policies – you name it.
If you need to go online to retrieve some of this information, do it! Find it and print it out so you physically have it in front of you. You need to see those numbers up close, personal, and real.
Don’t feel intimidated by the paperwork pileup! Just focus on collecting it in one central place so you know exactly what you’re working with. A file folder or accordion organizer can help separate key documents until we tackle them further.
I always advise my clients to take care of paperwork in small chunks, perhaps setting aside an hour each evening, rather than marathon sessions which can feel draining. Take breaks as needed – getting organized shouldn’t deplete you!
Step 2: Map Out Your Monthly Budget
Once you’ve gathered all of your financial paperwork in one spot, it’s time to map out a monthly budget. This single step is huge for finally understanding where your money goes each month – how much comes in and exactly what it is spent on, from needs like housing and transportation to things like entertainment or shopping.
The 50/30/20 Budget Method
I guide all my clients in designing a reasonable, realistic budget using the 50/20/30 framework. This budgeting method dynamically allocates money across needs (50%), financial priorities like paying off debt (20%), and wants (30%). There are free budget templates online that can help!
Monthly Income: When making your budget, record all sources of monthly income: your earnings, government benefits if applicable, child support or alimony payments, even cash gifts.
Monthly Expenses: Then list everything you currently spend money on each month including rent/mortgage, car/insurance payments, utility bills, groceries and household items, minimum credit card payments, medicines and healthcare copays, gas, childcare if needed…absolutely any recurring expense.
Assign Your 50/30/20 Percentages: Finally, start assigning percentages according to the 50/20/30 framework until your budget balances – income equals expenses. Having a budget roadmap empowers you to know where your cash is going and make intentional choices about spending based on your values. Revisit and adjust your budget monthly as income or expenses change.
Step 3: Tackle Debt Payoff Strategically
For many women I help with organizing their finances, the single most stressful financial priority is paying off lingering debt in the form of credit card balances, personal loans, medical bills, or student loans. These can feel like anchors weighing down your financial freedom and ability to channel cash towards future goals like buying a home, investing for retirement, sending kids to college, or pursuing your dreams through entrepreneurship.
When it comes to paying off debt, a strategic approach is key for efficiency while maintaining a balanced lifestyle. This means listing debts by interest rate, with highest rates first. Then structure a timeline for paying more than minimum payments each month to chip away aggressively at balances, utilizing any extra income from raises or bonuses.
There are also unique strategies like debt consolidation loans, balance transfers to accounts with 0% promotional rates, or even using home equity lines of credit at lower interest rates to consolidate higher-interest unsecured debts quickly. I help clients thoughtfully weigh the pros and cons of these options for their unique situations.
The key is continuing to funnel as much monthly cash towards debt payoff as reasonably possible, following your budget’s 20% delegation towards financial priorities. Maintain this focused debt payoff effort, and you will start to see debts balances going down each quarter which feels incredibly empowering!
Step 4: Automate Regular Investing
Once you feel comfortable with cash flow management through budgeting and strategic debt reduction, it’s time to build wealth over the long-term by investing any extra income each month. Consistent investing, especially in retirement accounts like 401ks and Roth IRAs that grow tax-free, leads to compounded returns over decades that can ultimately fund the life you envision.
I always tell women not to feel intimidated about investing – it’s truly more accessible than you think! Rather than trying to beat the market by hand-selecting stocks, I am a big believer in passive, autopilot investing for long-term growth.
This simply means contributing recurring monthly amounts to low-fee, diversified mutual funds that provide built-in stability and variety across thousands of stocks and bonds worldwide. Over long periods, these funds historically return around 6-8% per year on average. The key is consistency and compounding through dollar-cost averaging rather than worrying about daily market swings.
Nearly every investment firm now offers automatic transfers from bank accounts to investment accounts, taking the effort and guesswork out of manually moving money every month. This makes consistency effortless so your money quietly works for you over time.
Step 5: Take Small Daily Steps
I tell all of my organizing clients who need help in the financial organization department, that while organizing your financial life can feel overwhelming to start, maintaining structure is much more manageable when broken into small, daily steps. Like any big goal, focus on incremental progress through:
- Checking your budget weekly and adjusting categories to align with actual spending
- Logging into investment accounts monthly to see balances growing through contributions
- Adding paperwork to your accordion file holder throughout the month for easy access
- Scheduling monthly one-hour “money dates” to review any paperwork and fine tune your financial plan
The sense of control and relief that financial organization provides is so critical, especially for us busy women juggling work, parenting, health, relationships and more. My mission is to help women like you reduce money-related anxieties through simple education and implementing easy, sustainable systems. Again, I am not a financial advisor – I help women get organized financially. There’s a difference, but both are integral parts to feeling stress-free financially!
You’ve got this! With some diligence on the front end to get structured, maintaining financial order becomes much more intuitive over time. Here anytime you need guidance or accountability along the way!
Leave a Reply