Finances FYI Presented by JPMorgan Chase
Your home might be clean and tidy before bed each day, but is the rest of your life equally organized?
Financial disorganization and clutter can cause just as much stress as physical mess, so it’s important to develop routines that keep your financial life in order, too.
By using many of the same tips that help keep your home tidy and clutter-free, you can create a financial environment that cultivates peace and exploration rather than stress.
Set Yourself Up for Success
With cleaning, we keep our supplies handy, avoid cleaning on busy weekdays, and put on a fun playlist while we scrub. Do the same thing for your finances:
- Don’t store your credit card information online. This is safer but also helps prevent impulse purchases.
- Create a separate email account for online shopping. Don’t check the account unless you’re proactively searching for a specific coupon or deal. Your regular inbox will feel less cluttered, and you won’t be tempted by unnecessary purchases.
- Set up online banking for all financial institutions and credit cards. Make sure mobile check deposit is also activated.
- Deactivate “automatic renewal” on your app store to avoid surprise purchases.
- Make financial organization fun! Buy pretty folders, download a colorful app, and eat snacks while you pay bills.
Only Handle it Once (OHIO)
The “OHIO” mantra can prevent house cleaning from turning into a job of moving piles from one room to another. The same is true for finances. OHIO’s idea is to avoid intermediate steps and take care of the item or information immediately. For finances, OHIO might look like this:
- Pay a bill right after you open it.
- Set up auto-pay for new bills as soon as the first one arrives.
- Create physical folders for financial information that you need to save, and immediately deposit papers into those folders. Examples include tax documents, checks, or financial agreements.
Build Budgeting into Your Routine
Random household tidying can be helpful, but to really complete the task, you need to schedule cleaning into your routine. The same is true with budgeting:
- Set a time every week to review your purchases through your bank/credit card. Investigate any surprises, and call to dispute anything suspicious. Cancel charges that you thought were already canceled (it happens to the best of us!) and ask for a refund.
- Make a budget. Every dollar that comes in should have a “job.” Dollars can be allocated to bills, fun money, savings, or debt repayment, but no money should be left unassigned. Adjust budget categories and amounts each month as necessary.
- Plan a monthly meeting with your partner and/or family to discuss finances. Just like housekeeping isn’t solely one person’s responsibility, neither is the money! This is (another) great time to bust out the snacks while you chat.
Schedule Seasonal Purges
Just as we complete spring cleaning, it’s essential to do a financial deep clean and purge twice a year. Use these tips to help you prepare:
- Track subscription usage for the last six months. Is it worth the cost? If you’re on the fence, set a threshold usage for the upcoming season so that your decision is clear next time.
- Print (on paper!) your credit card spending for the last six months. Is there a retailer that appears too frequently? See if you can streamline those purchases for the next season. Shred the paper when you’re finished and add it to your garden compost or recycle bin to avoid adding physical clutter to your countertops.
- Consider your savings account balance, and see if you can move more money to a high-yield savings account or investment funds.
- Review statements for retirement and investment accounts. Decide if you want to investigate different options. By ignoring these accounts for the rest of the year, you’ll avoid making impulsive decisions.
With a few new routines and plenty of consistency, your financial life will be clutter-free in no time.
Finances FYI is presented by JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase is making a $30 billion commitment over the next five years to address some of the largest drivers of the racial wealth divide.
