So you are going to lose 20 pounds, exercise at least three times a week and stop drinking so much coffee. New Year’s resolutions, we all make them. Why not add to your list a resolution to clean up your personal financial mess. 

Before you can clean it up however, you must figure out just exactly how big the mess is. For one month beginning today, take every piece of financial information that comes into your home each and every day and throw it into a box. Pay stubs, deposit and withdraw slips, bills, cancelled checks, investment account statements, ATM receipts, you name it, throw it all in the box. At the end of the month clear the kitchen table and dump it all out. There you have, your personal financial puzzle right there before your eyes. For most folks, it’s one great big mess. 

It easy to travel down the path of complexity without ever even knowing you are doing it. A new savings or credit account here, another investment or insurance policy there, before you know it you are managing piles and piles of paperwork and more accounts than you can possibly keep track of. Your files get helplessly out of control and you surrender to a life of perpetual complexity.

It doesn’t have to be this way. With just a little though and imagination, you can eliminate the mess and regain control of your financial life and your kitchen countertops. Consolidate insurance policies with the same carrier, close old bank accounts, tear up those department stores cards, bring your mutual funds together at one or companies. It may not seem like much but once you get organized you can free yourself to take even meaningful stops toward simplification.

For more information visit www.theunfinancialplanner.com