One Year To An Organized Financial Life – October through December

I think I’m admitting a form of defeat on this book.  I actually can’t believe I completed 8 of the 12 months!  I missed July and now I am about to briefly skim over October, November and December.  I know I’m not going to have time to read and review each chapter on its own.

 

October is about protecting our assets with insurance – medical, home, disability & long-term care, and transportation.  Insurance is so important because the unexpected does happen.  We are not as protected as we would like to be but in October we looked into more life insurance for both Jason and me.

 

November sees us moving into the holiday season which is typically accompanied with crazy spending.  The authors walk us through planning and budgeting and preparing for this season in the following areas: gifts, entertaining, decorations.  This season tends to be so stressful so more and more we are encouraged to scale back in all areas – family gatherings, work and church obligations.  Lastly, they talk about travel.

 

December is the last month in the book and the last of the year; they’ve already dealt with Christmas stuff.  The topic left to discuss is year-end financial decisions – charitable donations, tax-losses, planning for the next year and setting new goals.

 

Money and financial decisions are not fun topics to discuss.  They are even considered taboo.  Leeds and Wild tackle this issue in a direct and friendly manner.  They get the job done and their readers will gain lots of valuable insight.  Thanks for a great book!!!  I look forward to referring back to it in the months to come.

 

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

One Year To An Organized Financial Life: September

Children and Money – This is an important topic; we need to teach our children about money, by our example as well as “in the class room”.  I don’t think I’m teaching our kids much, except that there is never enough money around.  Okay, maybe that’s not entirely true.

 

If you will remember from past posts, this book provides a habit and a tool for each month.  These two items are meant to help us reach our financial goals faster.

Habit of the Month: Read advertisements carefully.  We do this from time to time with our children, but not as in depth as suggested.  Granted though our children are young.

Tool of the Month: A money management binder for children.  I think this is a good idea overall.  However, we don’t pay a regular allowance or commission (as Dave Ramsey calls it).  As my husband and I learn more, maybe that will change.

 

Week One: Frugality for Parents.  This section deals with two main issues – parents giving to their children out of guilt and teaching children to manage money.  The authors encourage parents to trade the money they spend ON their children for time spent WITH their children.  The money saved could be put towards retirement or an education fund.  Children need to learn how to manage money, so that when they hit the real world they are not falling into a lot of the same traps some of us parents have.  I do not want my children to experience a bankruptcy; I want them to be further ahead financially than my husband and I were when we got married.  By our examples we need to show our children a balance between working and taking care of ourselves / having fun.  We work so that we can take a holiday, for example.

 

Week Two: Educate  Your Children about Money.  I love this section.  The authors show us how to teach age appropriate money lessons. They have a number of different age groups with ideas for each.

 

Week Three and Four: Save for College and How Your Child Can Contribute.  These are great chapters.  We believe that our children need to pay most of their way into and through college themselves.  We will help but they need to prove that they want to be there and work hard to get there themselves.

 

So much good information here!

 

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

 

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

One Year to An Organized Financial Life: August

Well, so much for my plan to review this chapter weekly.  I read it all at once and put it into practice and the stuff in my house is shrinking!  I am decluttering like crazy!  Now, on to the material presented in August.  (Remember I skipped July and moved straight to August's material mostly because my blogging in August is going to be very slim due to baby's arrival.)


Habit of the month:  Write it down.  Write down in your  financial journal one things you did that day toward reaching your financial goals.  I didn't do this.

Tool of the month: Fantasy Stock Picks.  Making stock picks is my husband's department.  I am leaving that to him and because he's not reading this book with me I did not use this tool this month.

Week 1: Look for ways to downsize.  What is downsize?  "Downsizing is letting go of items that are draining you financially, emotionally, or physically."  (page 145)  Essentially downsizing equals freedom.  I have created a large amount of freedom for our family this month.  I have gotten rid of hundreds of items from our home!  I am working with my friend to get rid of a minimum 20 items a day from our homes.  I've had success for over a week now.  Before we started this mission, I'd removed a lot of other stuff as well.

Somethings that Regina and Russell suggest getting rid of in their book are big ticket items - cars, large screen TVs, boats, excess clothing and jewelry.  Should you downsize your home?  This would not be a good idea for us.  Our family is growing.  We can afford the home we live in.  And we are in the middle of some major renovations which would make it hard to sell currently.  Let go of status items: that new car, that boat, that beautiful furniture you can't afford.  Remember to negotiate.  Can you use public transportation or car pool so that you don't need / have so many personal vehicles?  These are all ways that we can have some freedom.  As I read through this chapter, I didn't see a lot of big ticket items that we could get rid of; we just don't have any, but we have lots of little stuff that is eating away our space and our sanity.  That leads me to week two.

Week 2:  Clear the Clutter, Room by Room.  I have not yet started clearing the clutter room by room.  This last week I have been focusing on our main living spaces - living room, office, dining room, homeschool area and porch.  Things are getting pretty slim and I'm struggling to find things.  Last week I focused on the clothing in our home.  The children had way too many items; I removed over 30 items from each of two children!  One friend commented that when he arrived he expected to see some naked children as I'd gotten rid of so much clothing in the last week (he gathered this information from my Facebook statuses).  We had quite a chuckle.  I didn't get rid of that many items!!!  We just have that much stuff!  I do want to move on to decluttering room by room, but I to not think that is going to be possible before our new baby's arrival.  Until I am back up on my feet again, I will just get rid of 20 things a day from wherever I happen to be working that day.  I will be putting a book mark on this week to come back to at a better time for me!

I love how Regina encourages us to reward ourselves after such a week of hard work.  Decluttering is really hard work, and not just physically.  Mentally and emotionally this work can be very draining.

Week 3:  Hold a Yard Sale.  I don't hold yard sales.  I find that they are too much work.  I would way sooner donate the items to someone else who is holding a garage sale to raise money for something or to our local second hand store or to someone in need.  I feel as if I have been given this stuff to bless others.  Yes, if I needed the money, I could sell many items in our home, but most of the stuff in our home was given to us anyway.  I just don't feel right selling it.  I have found many ways of blessing others with our excess.  I share items to give away on Facebook, by word of mouth, by taking them to the second hand store, by putting a "FREE" sign on them at the end of our laneway.

However, if you are so inclined to have a yard sale, Regina Leeds can lead you through a step by step process to get you from beginning to end in an organized and useful manner.  I've never thought of a yard sale in quite the manner as she has laid it out.  It looks like a major enterprise when you look at the number of steps (quite easy steps)  involved to make a yard sale profitable.

Week 4:  Should You Refinance your home.  This is something J and I need to consider in the next year or so.  We have been living in this home for over 3 years now.  We have not been paying any extra on our mortgage, but we got a really good mortgage and a great deal on the house when we bought it.  Now that I have more information (from this book and from Dave Ramsey's material) I want to really look at our mortgage with open eyes, mind and heart.  I want to get us to the end of our mortgage as quickly as possible.  Our biggest (and very close to only) debt left is our mortgage!  This is very exciting!  Regina and Russell offer some great advice and direction on this topic.  Other topics covered are second mortgages, home equity loans and HELOCs (not sure if this is also a Canadian thing as well, though).

Another great month of advice and learning from Regina Leeds and Russell Wilde!  Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge in an easy to read and understand manner.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

One Year To An Organized Financial Life – taking a break, skipping July, moving August up.

Have you ever had a chapter or a book or a topic that you know is important but you just can’t “get it”?  You just can’t find the interest that is needed?  I just cannot get into investing and retirement savings.  I will not be doing this chapter justice.  The information is there; and the information is good.  But. . . it’s me!  Seriously.  I just don’t get it and I’m not going to torture myself.  One day, I will come back to this chapter and say, WHY DIDN’T YOU READ THIS SOONER!?!?!??!”  But for now, I’m moving on. 

 

See you in July.

 

Oh, I just looked forward to July.  Long-Range Financial Plans, including investing and wills.

 

August is baby month around here, but the material in the book (decluttering and downsizing) is where I’m at right now.  I think I may skip July in the book, and move right to August.  Because our baby is arriving mid-August the couple months following will be focused on the baby.  My blog, and therefore, this ongoing review, will be pushed to the wayside.

 

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

One Year To An Organized Financial Life: June Week Two

Calculating the cost of retirement is the topic for this week.  On average, a person needs to be putting away 15% of the income and earmark that money for retirement.  So my question is: if we were putting money away for our retirement (which we are not currently doing right now), what would that look like for us in a budget?

• MONTHLY INCOME:  3500
• TITHE: 350
• RETIREMENT SAVING: 525
• LEFT FOR MONTHLY EXPENSES: 2625

Right now that doesn’t feel the least bit do-able.  I guess that’s why I’m reluctant in this area.  This is definitely a learning month for me – this topic is hard for me to get my mind around.  It’s the part of Dave Ramsey’s course that I don’t get either.  I may need to find someone else who speaks my investment language.  So far I’m not getting it.

Habit: Read about investing.  I still need to pick up a book on this topic.  Here are some titles Regina Leeds suggests:  anything by John Bogle, but especially The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, Investopedia.com, Save Your Retirement  by Frank Armstrong III and Paul B. Brown, and Russell Wild’s investing books.  I guess I should put some of these on my to be read list.

Tool: Friendship.  This week we helped, attended and participated in our friends’ wedding.  Besides the obvious expenses of my husband’s suit and travel (a local wedding) to and from, this week’s activity cost very little.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

One Year To An Organized Financial Life: June Week One

This month is all about Building a Nest Egg.

This week we were to establish a retirement plan and the basics include: saving, investing and maximizing the advantages of retirement plans / programs.  (The ones in the book are US specific.)  I thought the advice was good and I really liked this at the end of this week’s material:

I can imagine that some of you may balk at this months’ material.  Perhaps you work in the arts and have on intention of retiring.  This is frequently the case with actors, writers, musicians and painters.  If you relate to this, remember that building a retirement nest egg will afford you the luxury of working for as long as you want.  You don’t wan to be, as a friend of mine once put it, an “old artist” who has to work until they drop because it never occurred to them to save.  and in the event of an emergency , you will be covered.

Habit: Read about investing, even if it’s just 10 minutes a day.  I did not read about investing.  I probably really need to do so, very badly.  However, I find investing so very boring.  Reading about it will really be a stretch for me.

Tool: Friendship – think of four ways you can build relationship without spending very much money.  Do so at least once this month.  Building relationships is something we do very well during the summer months.  We were out just last night with friends at a bachelor party.  We took all the kids because it was a campground situation and there were other children attending as well.  We had a lot of fun, stayed out too late and our only cost was the gas money to get there and food for the barbeque.

 

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

One Year To An Organized Financial Life: May Week Four

I enjoyed this week of May as well.  I know I don’t do enough to protect us from identity theft.  This week is short and sweet and offers quick suggestions in two related areas – how to protect from identity theft and what to do should a person become victim to identity theft.

The biggest piece of information I took away from this (and one that I already do, having had my wallet stolen while in high school) was to never carry those key pieces of ID on your person – birth certificates, SIN (Social Security card).  These need to stay at home, in your safe (if you have one, if you don’t, maybe get one).

 

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

One Year To An Organized Financial Life: May Week Three

 

Week three is all about reduce and rejoice.  It’s such a short chapter!  All you need to do is just to think about (and put into action) ways to reduce your debt load.  The big suggestion that stuck out to me (because we had to do it) was to cut up the credit cards.  Find another way to pay. 

Use cash, not card.  Did you know that you spend less if you have big bills in your wallet rather than small bills????  Cool hey!?  It’s true. When I have 50’s in my purse, I don’t want to break them.  The amount has to be close to 50 dollars for me to use a bill that size.

Just a reminder of the habit and tool: Save your pocket change (which you will have if you are using cash, right????).  And make a dream board.

 

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

One Year To An Organized Financial Life: May Week Two

I’ve mentioned before that my dh and I went through a bankruptcy.  Our credit spending changed drastically after that!  We have chosen not to have a credit card unless it is a pre-paid one.  This week Regina and Russell talk about curbing our credit card spending.  Firstly, you need to figure out what the total debt load is currently.  Next, find out why you are buying on credit; the author state three main reasons: unconscious spending, major illness and “magic money”. 

Just prior to our bankruptcy we were very close to having our credit cards paid off.  The trouble was that my dh’s job “fell out from underneath us”.  The work just wasn’t there anymore.  So we put a lot of living expenses on our credit cards.  We used our credit cards as “survival”.  Part of our problem was that we had matched our spending to what his current income was.  When that current income changed (dropped drastically) we were stuck; we were stuck with cc debt, two brand new vehicles (making payments), and a new (to us) house that needed a tonne of work.  He found work within a few short months, but the wage was less and we were so far behind that there was really no way out for us (that we could see at that point).

Since then we have taken a couple of courses as well as pointers from our bankruptcy trustee office.  The main course that we took (twice now) is Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University.  Many of the same principles are presented in both Regina Leeds’ book and Dave Ramsey's material.  I encourage anyone in financial trouble to find someone “who speaks your language” and get the help you need before you get to a point where you see no way out and have to claim bankruptcy as we did.  (Dave Ramsey is not a proponent of bankruptcy at all!  He says that all those debts need to be repaid; they were contracts and deals that you signed and the correct thing to do is to fulfill those commitments.  At least that is my understanding from what I’ve learned taking his course.)

Habit: Save Pocket Change – I “caught” dh throwing change into the piggy bank this week!!!!

Tool: Dream Board

Have a great week!  On to next week’s material.

 

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

One Year To An Organized Financial Life: May Week One

 

Another new month and I feel like I”m behind already!  Well, I am behind!  I can’t believe that I am sitting and writing this on the 15th of May!  Where did the first two weeks of this month go????

The month of May is titled “Borrow Smart”.  The habit is “save your pocket change”.  The tool is a “dream board”.  We already save a lot of the pocket change that we have around.  Sometimes it goes to the kids; often it gets used to buy eggs; we get farm fresh eggs once a week.  I try to put the change in a little piggy bank near the coffeepot.  I am not a dream board person so I doubt I will do any of this activity.  DH can see things (visualize them in his head) so he won’t need it either.

During this week the authors talk about lowering the cost of credit.  There is talk about FICO scores – how to check for errors, where to get the reports and how to boost your score.  Boosting your score (getting the right score is a fine balance) allows you to get the best interest rates (lowest) possible.

Week two coming soon.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

**I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.  I have chosen to take the year to review the book week by week!

One Year To An Organized Financial Life - February and April Weeks 2, 3, and 4!

Okay, I really slacked this month.  I am sorry.  I did not post regularly.  I did read it.  I got a few pointers.  I will share briefly with you about these three weeks.  I guess for more in depth, you will have to buy the book and review it yourself!

February
Determine Your Income and Fixed Expenses.  We have a handle on this because of going through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University (twice).  The ease of calculating your income will depend on a number of things including self-employment, method of payment, investments, etc. Fixed expenses are things that are recurring expenses.  These are things like groceries, car loans, TV, groceries, insurances, taxes, subscriptions, loans, utilities.  Job security is part of this section too.

Determine Your Variable Expenses.  "We're going to brush away the mask of unconscious spending and see what's really happening in your life.  Unconscious is the key word in that sentence.  We so often spend money without thinking, and little purchases snowball into giant losses." (pg.45)  In order to calculate these variable costs, you need to track every penny spent.  Guessing doesn't work.  Crunch the numbers.  Variable expenses include the money spent at the corner store, the coffee shop, the "extras" at the grocery store and the money spent on just this and that.  When that happens around here, we call it "nickel and dime-ing" ourselves to death (financial death).

Take a Fresh Look at Your Expenses.  This is the beginning of creating our budgets.  "Budgets, like everything in life, shouldn't be rigid.  If they are they tend to be ignored." (pg 47).  Regina and Russell suggest budgeting for a minimum o f 1-3 months, but a year is even better.  J and I have found that if we do not budget EVERY SINGLE MONTH, we do not have a handle on our spending.  Right now our spending is out of control; I know where every penny is going, but we are just spending (after the bills are paid) and not saving for anything.  (Another factor to our spending is using cash.  We have to use cash to keep control.  Using our debit card is too easy.)  Secondly, in this section, the authors talk about building an emergency fund.  We are not there yet either - the reason - my dh and I are not on the same page.

"It's always better to understand the reality of your situation than to keep your head under the proverbial rock."  (pg 50)

 This month I got the most out of April's chapters as February was mostly review and confirmation of what we are already doing.

April
Harness Your Marketability.  "(W)e get creative and look for hidden opportunities to make more money in your life.  There is no telling where thinking outside the box about your talents may lead."  As soon as I read this, I was reminded of an earlier conversation and brainstorm about selling at our local farmer's market.  This has been brought up on a couple of occasions and never acted upon.  On Monday, we will go get an registration form.

Working with Your Budget.  I loved this quote because it is ALL ME!  "Unless you find that tracking your formal budget gives you unbridled joy,  you might want to set a reasonable amount of time for working with the budget you began to set up in February." (pg 84)  I love working with our budget.  I work on it (and other aspects of our finances) almost daily, at very least three times a week.  I love crunching the numbers and tracking our spending.  The authors talk about 5 common budgeting mistakes: forgetting expenses from the previous months (such as annual payments), setting unreachable goals, not working with your significant other, not looking on both sides of the equation (reducing expenses and boosting income) and having only half a plan.  Lastly, cut expenses two ways - cut down daily discretionary spending (daily coffee shop latte) and look at the big items (paying the mortgage faster).

Banking Made Brighter.  This week was boring to me, but I need to qualify that statement.  This section just reconfirmed that we made the right decision to bank at a local bank.  The branch knows us, and our kids, and our situation.  They work with us where a bigger institution would not.  For someone who might need to change banks, this section is very valuable.  The authors talk about what to look for in a good bank - a good bank for you.  The information was also United States based and much of it did not apply to me, a Canadian resident.  However, the banking smart portion was interesting and applied to us.  Things like having your cheque deposited automatically, arranging for saving to be transferred automatically, and having clients put payments directly to your account.

"The goal is to make your money work for you, rather than letting a lack of it rule your life."  (pg 90)

Habits
Declutter.  This I did quite a bit of this month.  I got rid of a number of items from our home.  Mostly trash.
Log your savings. I did not log our savings.  I do know though that we have more in our savings account than we did at the beginning of the month for a variety of reasons.  I hope it stays there, but work is lean this spring.  The money in savings is for my kitchen renovation, provided we don't need it to make our monthly expenses.

Tools

Meditation.  I did not to the breathing exercises in the book, but I did take time to just be - without extra noise.  I think it helped my focus better on things.
Sleep.  I did try to get more sleep this month too.  I have made an evening routine and a plan to be in bed by 11PM.  Very often it was midnight, but the last couple of night I have made it there by 11PM.  I am still so tired.  I think the baby is growing and taking more from me, and I've been forgetting my vitamins.  All of those are factors in my energy as well.  I am so glad to be getting more sleep though.

Next month (May) is about borrowing.  Borrowing is something that we've decided to do very very sparingly.  Having just been through a bankruptcy we do not have a lot of debit, and are choosing to stay away from more credit.  By the looks of the section headings, this month is about reducing our debit load.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

One Year to an Organized Financial Life - February and April Week 1

Good afternoon, readers!  Are you ready for the next installment of this great book I'm reading?  I am yet again amazed at the wonderful "packed full" chapters I read this week.

February

This week talks about getting our bills paid on time.  By doing so we save money in late fees and administration charges.  There are really only four simple steps that start when you pick up your mail!

1. Deposit your mail when you walk in the door.  Put it in the same place every evening.  Decide whether to deal with it when you get home or later while watching TV or unwinding in the evening.  I tend to do my mail sorting as soon as I get into the house.  I deposit it on my desk.
2. Eliminate.  I eliminate all the extra papers right away - flyers, return envelopes, etc.  When that's done I either file the bills in an action file or just on my keyboard, so that when I sit at my desk I don't do anything else until the bills, etc are entered into my QUICKEN.
3. Schedule.  The bills are scheduled to be paid on their due date.  However, they get paid on the pay day before they are due.  Usually this keeps us ahead of the game and the late fees at bay.
4. Pay.  I do all our paying online that I can.  If I can't do it online, the company is probably local and so we walk the cash down to the store itself.

One thing that has happened for us in the past is that there is not enough money to go around.  We are doing okay right now, but there is a dry season just ahead of us.  How do you decide who to pay first?!?!  And how much?  We've found that giving everyone a little bit usually keeps them at bay.  There is a shaded box in the book called "TRIAGE".  Regina and Russell suggest the following:

• Pay Uncle Sam FIRST!
• Ask who can REPOSSESS!  Pay them NEXT.
• Seek the lowest cost.  Pay the loan with the HIGHEST INTEREST!
• Tap your conscience.  SMALL "mom-and-pop" enterprises will be needing the money to pay their own bills before the big corporations will.

April

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."  Joseph Campbell.

We need to be looking for ways to reduce our expenses.  The text this week in April is all about brainstorming for ideas of ways that we can reduce the "little" costs and what these "little" things are really costing us over the course of a year.  As I read through this chapter I was amazed at what DH and I were already doing!  And just as amazed at the suggestions that we were not willing to make changes to in our lives.  For example, food is the last place we will skimp.  Our grocery budget amount is the biggest number.  The one thing we are willing to do in the area of cutting food costs is finding a store that has lower prices.  We have to travel at least 30 minutes to get to such a store, but we are realizing that even with the gas and time we will still be saving money.  We don't eat out a lot and that's something we have cut back on and are willing to cut back on. 

We are not willing to be cold in our home.  Our heating costs are quite high and to many our home is much cooler than other homes.  We are not willing to cut back on our telephones or internet.  We pay for satellite TV but do or have very little other cost for entertainment.  We don't travel.  We buy used and are given many hand-me-downs.  We don't have memberships to gyms or anything like that.  There are very few magazines that come into the house.  We just aren't magazine people.  Car pooling is not an option, and we need two vehicles because DH works out of town so often.

"It's really both.  The real problem is that most people put their effort into the big expenditures, such as buying homes and cars, while thinking nothing of overspending on groceries and their phone bill.  Any kind of repeat spending is insidious because the amounts seem small, but they truly do add up."  (Gregory Karp, quoted on page 70 of One Year to an Organized Financial Life.)

Habits

Dedicate 10 minutes a day to decluttering.  Keep the extra papers at bay!
Log your savings.  "Every evening, make a note in your financial notebook that shows what you saved that day."

Tools

Mediation.  Focus on your breathing.  Just focus on the in and out.  Don't let your thoughts wander.
Sleep.  Sleep in a bit longer, go to bed a few minutes earlier.  Aim for an extra 20 minutes a night.  See how it makes you feel.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

One Year To An Organized Financial Life - January and March Week 4

So I am closing up January and March this week!  I can't believe that I kept up with both months.  There was a lot of information to take in reading it this way, but by the end of April, I'll be back on track.

January
This week is fun!  I love organizing my papers.  My only problem is I tend to keep too much of the wrong stuff.  I wish I had been able to get to the store to get file folders and other such supplies.  I was unable to work on my files, except to keep things organized and to think about what I would do as soon as I am able.  I love the way Regina lays out the files.  It works for me too, but there is room for individuality as well.


March
This week we are advised to double check a few things on our tax returns before we send it off in the mail.  Once it is sent, and we know we are getting money back, there are suggestions of ways to spend the money.  Regina and Russell are very conservative and very wise in their suggestions.  I am one to want to make a big purchase that we've been waiting on rather than do something "smart" with it like pay off debt or save "for a rainy day".


Habits and Tools
Water:  This one comes and goes for me.  Sometimes I'm really good and then I go through a spell where I only drink coffee or milk.  I'll get back to it again.

Filing:  I love my new filing system and am tweaking it a little more, as when I first made the system I didn't quite get it completed.  I have too many "dead" files in there.

Financial Notebook:  No new comments this week.

Music: I am discovering I don't like country music playing all the time anymore.  The songs are depressing.  Searching for better music for me.

 

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

One Year To An Organized Financial Life - January and March Week 3

 January
"Train yourself to consider the whole of any project.  This global outlook will not only enrich  your physical experience buy also help you be much more organized when we tackle paper next week." page 26, One Year to an Organized Financial Life, Regina Leeds.

This week are are dealing with the office space (usually a home office) and the stuff in that space.  My office area is in our living room area.  I have a large desk, a filing cabinet, Greeves (our Halloween guy that my dh bought from the local drug store), a table that holds my printer and some other miscellanea and under that table is a pile that could mostly move to storage.

Part one of this "new eyes" look at our space is to get rid of all the extra.  I have some extra I need to deal with.  There are boxes of books that need a home - not enough bookshelves yet.  There are boxes of stuff to move to storage.  I need to have that done (too many stairs for this pregnant body).  I will sort and pile these items and get help.

Part two of looking at our space is to clean our office spaces.  Just get things tidy.  Continue to get rid of what you don't use.  Buy organizers for the drawers; clear the desktop so it is usable space.

Thirdly, think about dual spaces - office/gym, office/guest room, or in my case, office/living room.  Be respectful of what else happens in this room.  There are ways to make it work.  For us, we use the couch as a divider between the two spaces.

March
This week Regina and Russell talk about preparing our tax returns.  We usually go with a tax preparer.  I am unsure what we are going to do this year.  I believe I have almost everything gathered together.  We really should have it done by someone else.  I don't seem to have the time to devote to doing them; I find it an added stress that I don't want.  Reading this chapter makes me believe that even more.  Doing your own and your spouses tax returns is not for everyone.

Habits and Tools
Water: I like water.  I need to drink more of the stuff.  I know that having bottles (500mL) around makes drinking more easier.

Filing:I believe this is starting to pile up again.  I need to check and stay on top of this success.

Financial Notebook: I used this again to answer a lot of the questions in the sections of the book that I read.

Music: I've gone back to having too much noise in the house.  Even now my head is pounding.

Next week we learn about getting our tax returns delivered and returned (March) and setting up a financial filing system.  I can't wait to work on my filing system a little more.  I am enjoying that I am able to find things when I need them!



Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

One Year to an Organized Financial Life - January and March Week Two

January
"Space and order free the mind.  If you want to make sound financial decisions, create an atmosphere that promotes clear thinking."  Regina Leeds, pg 20 of One Year To An Organized Financial  Life

In the second week of January, Regina asks us to clean out the bags that we regularly carry - purses, "man-bags", laptop bags, totes, etc.  I don't really struggle in this area.  My purse is fairly small and compact.  I just cleared the extra out the other day and added a book so that when I'm waiting on kids to finish choir I can read.  I don't carry a tote, but I've been thinking about starting that.  I want to be able to have a few more things that the children might need while we are out and about.  I will be thinking on this more as I don't want to be too weighted down carrying "stuff".  Flylady defines "stuff" as "something that undermines family fun".  I don't want to have stuff but I want to have things that will help us have fun - like water bottles and socks and . . . a few other things.  Not really financially related, but . . . important just the same.


I also carry a diaper bag, but I've shrunk what I carry and use a very small bag now.  My diaper bag age children are at the top end and don't need as much.  Come August when the baby arrives, I will probably go to a bigger size again.

March
In the second week of March, Regina (and Russell) help us get our tax papers organized!  Using the filing system we were supposed have created in January we were to gather all the papers from around the house and get them filed.  Well, I did work a little more on my filing system in the last few days but I ran out of file folders.  Last week I created my "action files" and they are working SO WELL.  No more piles on my desk or in my top desk drawer!  And my DH's new job has created a lot of new paperwork!

"Never underestimate the power of the visual to help or hinder your progress." pg. 57, One Year to an Organized Financial Life.  Keep your piles of papers neat and tidy after you collect them from around the house and office.  I know that I have file boxes of paper down in the storage area.  I need to pull those upstairs yet and get them filed away.  However, I'm not willing to do so yet as I don't have the tools I need to start the task.  THINGS NEEDED: medium sticky notes, legal size file folders, piles of paper from the basement, bottles of water, snacks.

Now follow through with the three steps:

1. Eliminate what you can.  2. Categorize what's left.  3. Organize it all!

Habits and Tools
Water:  I didn't do so well with this habit this last week.  I find that when things get busy (Jason came home this week) I forget to drink water.  When I'm busy is when I need it the most though.  I really need to continue to work on this.

Filing: this is going well!  I currently have maybe 10 pieces of paper to file!

Financial Notebook: this has been very helpful.  I just like being able to keep everything in one place.

Music: I've still cut down on the noise around here.  Still loving that too!

And one more quote:

"And I just can't say it often enough: Time is money.  Times is also a commodity.  You get each minute only once.  rather than squander time searching for papers you need, you will be saving time to devote to your financial planning, or better yet, to enjoying the rewards it will bring."  pg. 58, One Year to an Organized Financial Life.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

One Year To An Organized Financial Life - January and March Week 1

January
"Making and managing money is incredibly empowering.  I have embraced he example he (her father) set and found other teachers and mentors o give me the instruction he didn't know how to impart.  Just so, your future is bound to be better."  Regina Leeds, pg 15 of One Year To An Organized Financial  Life

In the first week of January, Regina asks us to come up with some financial goals for the year and to answer some questions that reveal our relationship with money.  I found that my relationship with money is and has been really good.  My parents didn't have (seem to have) a terrible relationship with money.  We were always provided for, but like the quote above states, I have had to find other places to get the instruction and education that I've needed to make my money future even better.

Here are some of the financial goals I wrote in my Financial Notebook:

1. I plan to have an emergency fund by the end of the year.
2. I plan to create a budget that is flexible yet stable for our family.
3. I plan to be able to give more financially to our community.

March
This week in the first week of March, Regina (and Russel) let us know what documents we need to keep and for how long.  I don't keep enough paper.  I will be reviewing these lists and taking better care to have all the needed documents on hand.

Habits and Tools
The two habits I am working on that correspond with these two months are to drink two glasses of water each day and to do at least five minutes of filing.  The tools are to have a financial notebook and to use music to help face the challenges that come with dealing with money.  I have found that I am drinking a little more water than I used to.  My filing is getting done more regularly; my "to be filed" drawer is not as full.  I started a notebook where I record answers to the questions and where I make some notations about our budgeting and bill paying.  I have been having less noise around.  I think I finally figured out that the noise level in this house is just too much.  There is always something going - tv, stereo, iTunes.  A couple of times this last week I have just turned all the music and programs off.  Our voices are so loud when I do that.  I think we talk loudly to hear each other over all the "background" noise.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Habits for the month of March

Tomorrow starts a brand new month!  I like to have a monthly focus or habit that I work on each month.  March will be a month of changes and I'm hoping that I haven't planned too many.

Flylady's habit of the month is getting dressed to shoes every morning.  Well, I already do that; it's a well ingrained habit for me.  I don't wear lace-ups; I wear croc-like shoes in the house.  Included in getting dressed to shoes is not wearing jammies.  I make sure I have my undergarments on and socks on my feet.  I do my hair and makeup.  Even jewelry.  I've learned that just because I'm always at home that doesn't mean that I have to look like a slob!  Getting dressed as if I were going out helps me to get a lot more done around the house.  I feel more productive.  This is even becoming a habit for my children now.

I am reading two months of Regina Leed's new book this month.  I am reading January and March.  She has included some special features in this book that I know I am going to love.  The first is a habit for each month.  January's habit is to drink two glasses of water a day; this is to get us on a good start toward drinking 8 glasses of water each and every day.  March's habit is to file away the papers for just 5 minutes each day.  I have a drawer in my desk that I just throw the papers in as I finish with them - entering them into the computer, adding the information to the calendar, etc.  I also have a box of filing (or 2) downstairs from just after we moved into this house.  We moved here in April of 2007.  I would like to think that by working on my filing 5 - 15 minutes a day that I could get all of that mess put away into files as well.

The second cool tool in Regina Leed's One Year to an Organized Financial Life are just that - TOOLS.  January's tool is a financial notebook.  I'm not entirely sure what this is going to be used for, but I have set aside a section of a three subject notebook for this purpose.  I suspect it will be for journaling throughout the year about money and the process we are on of getting organized in this very important area of our lives.  March's TOOL is music.  She says to use music to help get through the hard work that may be required in getting organized.  Whether you like fast dance music or classic rock or Mozart's symphonies it doesn't matter.  Play what music motivates you and gets you in the mood to organize!

Also, I am hoping to get us on a scheduled routine.  I want regular get up times and regular go down times.  I want a rest time every day for everybody.  I want schoolwork happening every morning and maybe into the afternoon.  I want less media (tv, computer, etc) and more play and reading.  (A more specific goal is reading aloud to the children 3 times a week.)

There are so many other organizing things I am implementing specifically in the area of homeschooling.   I want to regularly record what homeschooling we do.  I want to get us memorizing Scriptures and poetry.  I want us to play music together - such as singing together the girls' choir songs.  These things will develop over the course of the next few months, but I will be starting on them now.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Just getting started on One Year To An Organized Finanical Life

I'm getting a late start on One Year to an Organized Financial Life due to some shipping issues.  However, it is now in my hands!  I have quickly skimmed over the table of contents and am SO excited!  I can't wait to get started.  I know I have a lot of the tools and tricks in place already but there is so much that I know I am going to learn.  I'd really like to start in January and work my way right from the beginning.  Another part of me says, start the first week of March and then in the new year do January and February.  I am just unsure; I think that what Regina Leeds covers in January and February are points that are built on in March and the following months.

(I really can't believe that February is almost done!!!)

As I write this, I am reading the introduction.  The goal of this book is to "bring clarity, simplicity and order to your finances."  I'm excited.  Like I said, I have a pretty good system, but there is always room for improvement and hints and suggestions.  However, I think that I will find a lot of the information will be specific to the United States.  (We find this with Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University as well.)

So many times I skip over the introduction in a book.  I am glad that I didn't with this book.  Regina Leeds packs a lot of learning into her introduction.  This is general information to help guide us through the book and through the year.  In the introduction she explains the Magic Formula which is a three step process to organization. 

There are other things that we need to do in order to make positive change in our finances.  I will be working on these things through the process as well.  I am amazed that no matter what organizing book or person I am reading or listening to I find these same things to be consistently needed:

• make your bed every morning (sound like Flylady?)
• never leave dirty dishes in the sink (Flylady again???)
• don't leave clean dishes in the drain pan
• put your keys in the same place the moment you come home (launch pad??)
• create a set place for items that always get lost such as remotes and glasses

After reading the introduction entirely, I have decided to get through the first two chapters while also working on the current month.  I will do the first week of January and the first week of March.  I will continue through March and April in this manner.  At the end of April, I will be able to move just to May on its own.  I think that might get the job done.

Watch for more posts in the coming weeks.  I'll be starting full force on this book come the first week of March.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,