Money Monday Tip #14

I consider myself to be an organized person, maybe I’m just wired or weird that way, but it works for me. I find that when I’m not organized, I’m stressed or late for something and it usually ends up costing me time and/or money. Below are probably the two most common areas of when being disorganized can cost you money you didn’t have to pay.

Problem: Missing Payments. If you are disorganized you are more likely to a miss or be late with a payment because either you don’t know where the bill is or you don’t know when it’s due. Solution: Most creditors allow you to set up automatic payments online and the money is taken directly from your checking account. If that doesn’t work for you, here’s another option: When your paper bill comes in, open it immediately and write down the payment date on a calendar (that you will keep in the same place) and on the outside of the envelope, even if you are going to pay it online later and the amount due. If you have a free e-mail account that has a calendar feature, go ahead and enter that information there and set the reminder notice to email you several days before the due date.

Problem: Overdrawn Accounts. A friend of mine once told me that he was thinking about changing banks because they charged him over $600 in overdraft fees. Occasionally banks do make mistakes, but upon further investigation of his situation, HE was the caused the overdraft because of not knowing how much money he had, or didn’t have, in his account.

Solution: The solution is simple…balance your checkbook! If you don’t want to balance your checkbook, at least keep track of the purchases you make or checks you write against your account on a sheet of paper. When you get home at the end of the day, take a minute to deduct those amounts from your account balance. A general idea of your balance is better than no idea. If this doesn’t work for you, most banks allow you to set up e-mail alerts against your account. Set up an alert that emails you, maybe to your mobile phone, when your account balance falls below $100. This will at least put the thought in your head to get an accurate balance or not to make a purchase until you do.

The real problem is being disorganized can be a waste of time, money and productivity. Do we spend more time looking for things than we actually spend getting things done? For every minute we spend looking for misplaced items is time that could have been spent doing something productive. Are we constantly making late payments and being charged overdraft fees because we didn’t make the time to sit down and look over our finances? If you answered yes to any one of these questions, why not take a few minutes to get yourself organized, doing so will no doubt save you both time and money.

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