Do you have a bunch of documents, statements, receipts, and more lying around? Well, April is the perfect time to sort this all out. April is often the time for spring cleaning. Although this mostly involves general cleaning of your house or donating items you no longer need. This time can also be used to ‘spring clean’ your finances.
Here are a few tips on how you can spring clean your finances this year:
- Sort, Sort, and Sort Some More
Sort your financial documents into categories, this way it becomes easier to manage. Categories can include bank statements, bills relating to your home, receipts, contracts, and miscellaneous. Throw away (or shred which is a more secure option) that which is old and no longer relevant. This could be bank statements for an old credit/debit card, bills from a previous residence, or pay slips older than three months.
Create a filing system with labelled folders in a secure area of your house. Once this filing system is set up it becomes easy to file new documents and throw out old ones.
- Consider Digital
Some documents are best to keep as hard copies such as rental agreements, mortgage statements, and work contracts. However, documents such as bank statements and receipts are available online these days which can be easily filed digitally either through Google Drive or directly on your computer.
- See Where You Can Start Saving
Once everything is organized it becomes easier to see where your money goes every month. Consider creating an Excel sheet where you can clearly see where you spend your money. Here you can also create categories such as income, savings, bills, subscription fees, groceries, bank accounts, loans, and miscellaneous (spending on clothes, recreational activities, and luxury items).
Indicate in green the money that comes in your account monthly and indicate in red the money that comes out. You can create an easy equation after doing this to see how much money you have left every month.
When all this is done you could possibly see that you no longer use a certain subscription and could save money by unsubscribing, or you have a bank account you no longer use which you can close.
All of this may seem like a bit of a hassle, but once it is done you will not regret spring cleaning your finances. It will only make your life easier moving forward.
