Through the last summer and especially the last few months I’ve had a bit of a rough spot when it comes to my finances. And I won’t go into detail to ensure that I won’t bore anybody with the specifics, but .. now that the holidays are over it’s time to revisit my pile of bills and my small pile of income. Since it’s January 1st today I guess this could be my new resolutions. Getting my financing in order.
So, where to start. Well, first of all I am going to decide a single central place for all the data. I can not organize things if I have documents with information and bills and tax notices just lying around. Secondly I need to get a clear single overview generated from this. So I know (ignoring unexpected surprises at the moment) which months are easy, and which months I can expect extra bills. Because some bills are annual, quarterly or every other month or so. I will also need a calendar so I can see around what date money comes in, and at which dates automatic-payments go out.
My first step before I start with those two things is to simply gather the information. So I have them in front of me, which means I can then get started. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always had a pretty good idea how things are financially, it just needs a serious refresh.
Today I still have to finish of some things from 2007, like insurance and some tax papers. So I can soon get started on the tax form for 2007 which is now behind me. While I am doing that I will try to think about how I want to have a central place for the info, gather up the info, and think about a way to have it display in an overview for me.
Hopefully this new year will not bring me any unexpected surprises in the forms of bills, but that financially things will just go smoothly. With a good overview I will have a better understanding of my money and my costs and hopefully that will open doors for more fun things and more saving.
Wish me luck (with a blog post reply?) and if you want to leave any comments feel free to do so. I also invite you to go over my old blog entries to see if you haven’t read something. And of course, hopefully see you back soon on my blog.