Keeping your financial paperwork organized will help with your budget and your peace of mind! First, it is important to have a central location for your monthly financial papers. This doesn’t always have to be at a desk, it can be created in the kitchen, it can be portable.

The key is that it is accessible and convenient.I like to recommend that my customers create a bill paying center. This can be a tray or basket on the desk, a file in the filing cabinet, or an accordion file that can be used in any space. In your bill paying center you will have monthly bills, checkbook, stamps, pens, envelopes, ATM and EFT receipts and any other items you need to use.

Additional bill paying tips:

• when the mail arrives, put the bills in the bill pay center immediately
• use a computer bill paying program (i.e. Quickbooks, Microsoft Money)
• use bank autodrafts and online bill paying when possible
• balance your checkbook monthly
• organize your incoming bills with your paydays (i.e. pay on 1st .. 15th)
• write out your bills on the eve of your payday
• create a bill pay fact sheet (what paydays which bills are paid, which credit cards you are trying to pay off first, web page addresses for bill pay and banking, or any information that you can refer back to each month)

Having a bill paying center in place will help you streamline your monthly financial duties and save you time and money!