What are 10 Easy Steps to Simplify Your Finances and Enrich Your Life ( Archived) (17)

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I have NO IDEA if there ARE 10 "Easy Steps to Simplify Your Finances and Enrich Your life", Galrads. Or 5, or 50. But I WILL tell you a few things "I" do, to make "things" simpler, for ME.

#1. NO checks. I HAVE checking accounts (in fact, 3, in 3 different banks). But I DON'T write checks. (In fact, I DON'T HAVE checks FOR any of the 3 checking accounts I have!) Writing checks means that I'll have to maintain and balance a checkbook. By eliminating checks, I eliminate this "work", and so, SIMPLIFY my life/finances.

#2. I PAY for EVERYTHING (except my payments on my credit cards) via credit card. The advantage of THIS, is that, at the end of the statement period the credit company sends me an itemized list of my expenditures for the period. Plus, today, MOST cards will give you a rebate of some percentage of your purchases. So the credit company provides me with the records I need for tax purposes (in a neat, small and convenient form), plus I get a small price break on ALL my purchases.

#3. I pay ALL my credit cards via direct wire transfers from one of my checking accounts. I set it up FOR that purpose, and, when I receive my monthly statement FOR that account, it provides me with a small convenient record of my payments which is easily saved. And thus, the bank does my record keeping FOR me.

#4. The DISADVANTAGE of using cash for all my purchases is manifold. I would NEED to carry around sufficient cash for my needs, said cash being subject to loss or theft. And UNRECOVERABLE, in EITHER case. (Whereas, with credit cards, a fraudulent purchase on a stolen or lost credit card IS recoverable!) I DON'T get discounts on my purchases. (I have an American Express card that pays me 3% back, on all grocery store purchases! Can you imagine trying to to bargain with a grocery store manager for a discount, at the register?)

#5. What money I have, IN EXCESS to my immediate needs, I invest in certain readily convertible assets, that I don't have to protect/watch over, personally. But that are HELD for me, at secure locations, within quick transportation range. There are a variety of such assets available, allowing me to diversify my holdings. Thus reducing my exposure to the risk of any one market's collapse. And I receive updates on my holdings from the agencies holding my assets, as a matter of course. So I have convenient records for whatever needed purpose.

This is beginning to get out of hand. So those 5 are enough to reduce your workload and ease your record keeping responsibilities.