Two weeks ago, I shared how I organize my home and manage my time. I have my own home’s finances, thirteen rental properties, three kids with two in school, investments, and whatever other ad hoc bills show up to manage. I don’t have the ability to think in a quiet and distraction-free environment after 7:30 am. That post was all about the little steps I take at the beginning and end of my day that help set me up for success. This week is what I’ve done to organize our finances to ensure bills are paid on time, while managing it against what income I’m expecting. This also has tidbits on organizing yourself so you don’t end up with missed bills.

One problem that I run into is business hours. I seem to be working with a lot more companies that won’t let me make payments online and require a phone call. It’s so frustrating. So after a morning of my chores and managing the 3 kids, I need to put on my big girl pants and muster the energy to make my phone calls while the baby naps (and the two big kids are likely placed in front of the tv… except they like to tell me about the show they’re watching while they watch). Then there are ones that are even worse because they require me to leave a message for someone to call me back, even though my ability to have a coherent conversation is really only within these 2 hours of the day. For example, I ended up scheduling my son’s surgery while finishing up check out at Home Depot and walking out the door with two children in tow.

FINANCIAL ORGANIZATION

Every year, I need to set up two spreadsheets. One keeps track of our income and bills, and the other keeps track of property-specific income and expenses. While an investment property tracking mechanism isn’t something that everyone needs, a way to manage your bills is. My financial tracking spreadsheet has been used in the same exact form since 2012, when Mr. ODA and I got married.

Before I get into the spreadsheet tracking mechanism, you can do something as simple as a calendar appointment. At this time, the preschool director sends an email with a new link every month to pay tuition. Last year, it was the same link all year with no reminder email. Since this was something I wasn’t used to, I made a calendar appointment on the first of every month that said “Tuition Due.” I check my calendar every few days at the very least, so I didn’t need it to notify me; but you can set it up to send a push notification or an email if you need one of those forms to help with the reminder.

Mr. ODA gets paid biweekly. The paycheck shows up in our account on a Saturday, so my tracking is by that date. For example, his paycheck showed up on the 6th this month. I also expected to have most of rent paid on the 5th (falls on a Friday, tenants have a grace period until the 5th without a late fee, and it’s just after the holidays). I have each house listed with their respective rent due. As rent comes in, I turn the font color to gray from black, which is my indication that it’s been received. If I’m not expecting rent until later in the month, then I move it out to that two-week period column.

For expenses, I list anything that will come due between the 6th and the 20th. This includes all mortgage payments, utility bills, credit card payments, and investments planned. Again, as they’re paid, I turn their font from black to gray.

This process is necessary for me because of the number of bills I have to manage. The spreadsheet is an indicator to me that a bill is coming due, so if I haven’t noticed an email or mailing with the bill amount by a certain date, I go search for it. I don’t want to miss a payment. Sometimes, a system is updated and your email is missed, or there’s a glitch, and then there’s no email sent as the trigger for me to pay it. I like having the spreadsheet as a “safety net” for our bills.

MAIL ORGANIZATION

Nearly all of my bills are sent electronically to my email, but I sometimes receive paper mail. It could be a medical bill, a rental’s utility bill, tax bills, etc. I open all my mail the day it’s received.
– I separate out the junk mail and put it immediately in the recycling bin. A pile of envelopes building up over the week just creates distractions. You see a big pile that needs attention, and it’s a daunting task. If you eliminate the things that don’t actually need your attention immediately, it leaves a smaller pile for you to see.
– I lay papers that don’t need action, but I want to keep on file, in a pile at the bottom of my stairs. Many of these could probably be eliminated because I have access online. But sometimes it’s easier to have a paper version available. For example, my EOBs are mostly available online. Sometimes they don’t load on the website, and sometimes I need to take notes on issues I’m working on with them (which is far more often than I’d care to admit for a service I’m paying for).
– I lay the papers that need action on my “to do” pile, which is in the kitchen. When I worked in an office and didn’t have kids, managing these bills was a lot easier. Now I’ve set up a routine where I check the pile every Friday. The pile is visually available; it’s not in a basket or a drawer. There have been a few times where time flew, and before I knew it, I hadn’t checked the pile in 3 weeks (newborn life!). The scare that I remembered to pay a bill right on the due date, and by sheer coincidence checked my pile that day, made me establish a more consistent expectation of myself to look at the pile every Friday.

EMAIL ORGANIZATION

When I was working, this was a hot topic. I stayed on a top of my email. I verified that someone else didn’t respond to an email before I responded. I didn’t attend a meeting and state that I hadn’t seen an email pertinent to the topic discussed. I didn’t have leadership coming to ask me for a response to something that they didn’t receive timely.

I hit low hanging fruit first and reduced the clutter. This is the same concept as getting rid of the junk mail you get. I skimmed “all employee” emails to see if it was pertinent to me. I either read it right away (because these are just reading emails and won’t require an action) or I deleted it right away. I see people often just leave it sitting in their inbox unread. It’s a distraction. You’re constantly looking at something that needs to be dealt with, and it’s taking brain power away from the things that you really need to focus on.

Then I looked at emails from my direct leadership team. These items could be not pertinent to me, could require immediate action, or could be part of a larger situation that needs attention. After that, I focused on emails from my counterparts at the State. They’re my “customer,” and typically these emails are issues that need addressed timely.

Essentially, I’m skimming all emails and mentally filing them into how quickly they need attention or how much effort they’re going to take. If I can answer an email without any further research or effort than just typing the response, then I do that. I then immediately file the email because it’s “done.” I get it out of my inbox so that I can continue to focus on what needs addressed. At the end of this, I should only have a few emails left for action, and I get to work.

I manage my email the same way now, for my personal needs. Store coupons and such get deleted right away. A coupon is rarely good for more than a month, so I use my trash as the filing system there (which gets automatically deleted every 30 days). If I go to Kohl’s, then I just do a search in my trash folder for the latest Kohl’s emails to see if I have a coupon. I keep all emails that require action in my inbox. Right now, I have a Walmart order confirmation (so I’m tracking to make sure it arrives), a medical bill, a reminder from the Y to pick up a shirt, and the kids’ tuition email. When I’m done writing this, I’m going to go pay the two bills and immediately file them into their respective folder. When my Walmart order arrives today, I’ll delete that email. I’ll be going to the Y in the next couple of days, and once I pick up my shirt, I’ll delete that email.

BILL PAYMENTS

A lot of people would prefer to set up an auto payment for their bills. This is fine too, but that means you need to be keeping a balance in your checking account to cover all bills. I prefer to pay the bills based on what’s projected to be in my checking account, which is variable throughout the month. Some months, the pay checks align that mortgage payments to be paid on the 5th, sometimes it’s the 10th. You can only transfer out of a savings account 6 times per month, so I’m always managing that aspect as well.

The problem with auto payment is that you’re probably using that to “set it and forget it.” That’s not a great approach with bills. It’s a good approach if you’re sending $500 a month into your Roth IRA account, but not great if it’s your utility bill. If you’re usually seeing an electric bill for $75, then suddenly get a bill for $150, are you looking to see why that occurred? I did. Last year, I had a bill for $210 show up suddenly. I checked the meter against what they said the estimated meter reading was. They told me that the difference didn’t amount to enough to warrant an immediate credit. I thought that was unfair; I can afford to float that, but I don’t think everyone could suddenly absorb such an increase. I didn’t pay 2.5 months worth of electric because the actual readings were so much lower for the next couple of months.

REDUCE SUBSCRIPTIONS

Do you know what you’re subscribed to? Pay attention to all your charges over the next 5 weeks. Carefully consider what’s coming through. I’ve heard people say they didn’t realize they were paying two FabFitFun boxes. I’ve heard people say they’re paying for a Stitch Fix subscription that they haven’t used in 3 years. There are companies and apps out there that are trying to sell you a product to review this on your behalf. Is it really worth paying a fee to see what fees you’re going to save money from? No. Just put the effort into reviewing your statements now. Set a reminder in your email to check your week’s worth of charges at the end of each week. Pay attention.

What that company won’t do is help you decide if a subscription is worth it. Are you paying for 5 streaming services? Are you currently watching shows on all 5 platforms? Probably not. Go through phases. If you’re only watching one show on a platform, then you probably only need that subscription for a month or two of the year. We were subscribed to Peacock, but the only thing we used that for was The Office, which we put on as background noise; we cancelled that.

Have you been paying attention that a subscription has increased its cost? Is it still worth that price to you? These are things that you should be routinely asking yourself.

SUMMARY

The same goal applies in your daily routine as it does here: reduce the clutter so you can pay attention to what’s important. Reduce the number of subscriptions that you have coming in, reduce the number of papers you need to go through by immediately throwing junk mail away, set up an organized bill system so you stay on top of it instead of opening your mail once every two months.