Introduction
Staying on top of your personal finances can seem like a really hard work – there’s just so much to do! There is always a new piece of paper or email coming in, insurance to renew, utilities to switch – it never ends!
As ever though, it helps to work systematically and get things set up so that they are easy to stay on top of. The mountain doesn't seem so high when you're standing on top of it, as when you're looking up from the foothills.
Organise
In the previous blog series we covered organising your financial paperwork in one 11-point checklist. If you’ve read that, then you will have a super-tidy filing system where you can find anything quickly, deal with whatever you need to deal with, and return the file knowing it will be there next time you need it.
It may be that you need to replicate the paper filing system in part to cope with the increasingly paperless way that we are working these days. I have just renewed my car insurance, changed provider, cancelled my old policy all without a scrap of paper crossing my desk. Should I print out these documents and put them in my paper filing system? Whether you do that or not it's up to you, but I haven't done so.
Quite a bit of my financial filing system is now held within the Notion app. I can scan paper into it, or simply save any PDFs which I receive. It is an infinitely extensible database app which is completely customisable to your needs. Find a way to keep all the email pertaining to your finances properly organised.
The simplest way to do this of course is to have folders or labels for each policy or plan that you're likely to receive emails about. You can nest those folders, so you’ve got an ‘investments’ high-level folder and then individual folders within that.
Chances are you will do this over time, rather than sitting down one rainy Sunday afternoon and trawling through a year’s worth of email to identify anything related to your finances. But, you know, whatever floats your boat!
The whole purpose of being organised is to enable you to stay on top of your finances and general paperwork. An untidy filing system is more likely to lead to inertia. You won't know where to find what you need so you don't bother to look and nothing gets done. Whatever it takes to complete the process of organising your paperwork, whether physical or digital, do that first.
Summarise
Now that you have everything in one place, easily accessible, it makes real sense to summarise everything. This can take many forms. Maybe you could create an index of all your files, or a database with links to the websites of all your insurance, investment, pension and utility providers.
It could just be a single page list with each line representing one factor in your financial situation. It makes sense to group these into categories, such as utilities, insurances, investments etc. Ideally you want somewhere you can quickly check what you have and where.
Again, I use Notion for this. Both Jo and I have access to my Notion account, and I have created a dashboard with links to each category. If I get run over by a bus tomorrow, she will know exactly where everything is, including contact numbers, account numbers, direct debit amounts – the works.
While Jo handles the day-to-day reconciliation of bank accounts and managing the household budget, I tend to look after pensions, investments, insurances, utilities and all that stuff. She needs a place to go to look up information if ever she wants or needs to, and that's what my Notion summary is for us.
Now I'm a nerd, and if there is a software way of doing something, I’ll use it. But a paper summary is just as good…well not JUST as good but nearly as good! Take the time to create a summary of all your personal finance dealings in such a way that it's easy to keep up with. While I hope you're never hit by a bus, at the very least it will make your own life easier while you’re vertical and breathing!
Leave a Reply