Many times our personal finances are not simplified because we yes too often instead of a simple no thank you. We say yes to the many offers for discounts and additional purchases, which many times do not make our financial lifestyle any easier. For example, when making a purchase at a store, we are offered an additional discount on your purchase if you sign up for a store credit card. You have to ask yourself will that 10% or 15% discount on this purchase really make my financial life better. Probably not. Are the few dollars saved on this purchase worth the additional hassle over time. I would say NO.

By simply saying NO to that offer to save on your current purchase you have simplified your personal finances. Signing up for that new credit card is just another credit card you have to keep track of. That’s one additional bill to pay and an additional credit card could impact your credit score. So you tell me, is that additional saving worth the discount?

Saying NO THANK YOU will help you simplify your personal finances in the following ways:

Eliminate addition bills- by not applying for additional credit cards you will not have another bill to keep track of and pay each month.

Help your credit score – by not applying for those additional credit you can will not impact you credit score.

Less clutter – by saying no to additional purchases you have less stuff you have to store or maintain.

Save money – by saying no to additional purchases you have more money to save and start investing.

Save time -by saying no to those credit card offers or additional bank accounts. You save time because you are not spending your time keep tracking of those additional accounts.

Less stress – by not having those additional things your not stressing over if the bill was paid or how did I get so much debt.

TAKE ACTION
Next time your find yourself in a situation that may impact your personal finances use NO THANK YOU and it will benefit your personal finances in the long run.

Remember to take it one step at a time in order to simplify your personal finances.

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In order to simplify your personal finances, you must identify your financial ugly ducklings and turn them into financial swans.  What I mean by this is if you want to simplify your financial life so you can manage your finances better you must identify your bad financial habits which I refer to as your ugly ducklings and take action to turn this bad financial habits into a positive financial situation or what I refer to as financial swan.

Here are some ugly ducks you can turn into swans which will help you simplify your personal finances:

No financial goals – You have no long-term or short-term personal finance goals.  If you establish goals you can simplify your personal finances quicker.

Not living on a budget - You do not set a monthly or annual budget.  You are just spending money without setting limits.  Establish a budget will enable you to reach your financial goals you set and help you take control of your finances. Gazelle budget is a simple solution to help establish a monthly budget.

Not planning for the unexpected – You do not have an emergency plan in place in case of an emergency.  Establishing an emergency fund is like the goose that laid the golden egg when you are finances are in a bind due to an unexpected situation.

Not planning – You have not planned for the expected things that you know will happen in your life.  Read this to find out what you can plan for.  Establishing a plan for those expected financial situations will take the pressure off of you and your finances because you have planned for them in advance.

No estate plan – You have no plan in place to handle your assets upon your death.  Read this if you do not believe you need a will.  You do not know when it will occur but you can plan for it.  Establishing a plan prior to your death is much easier on your family.  You may not see the benefit but your family will definitely benefit and save some money in the process.

Too many credit cards – You have more than 3 credit cards with balances on them and you do not have plan in place to reduce your debt.  Read this to make sure you are practicing safe credit card usage. Reducing the number of cards you carry and the outstanding balances on them will simplify your personal finance.  This is one ugly duckling that you must turn into a swan rather quickly.  If not it can get uglier rather quickly.

Not automating – You are still not using online banking, still cashing your payroll checks, or mailing you bill payments.  Establish online banking which will enable you to pay your bills on line.  Setup automatic deposit of your payroll checks to simplify your finance and save you time.

Too much paper – Is your mailbox screaming for relieve because you receive so much mail?  Go paperless is more convenient  and will save you time.

Forgetting due dates – Do you seem to forget the due dates of your bills or just forget to put the bill in the mailbox.  Setting up your bills on your credit card or bill pay service will help you eliminate forgetting to pay your bill on time as well as save you from paying those late fees.

Living beyond your means - Trying to keep up with the your co-workers, neighbors and friends is causing you some financial stress but having the latest or newest whatever is more important.   Stop trying to keep up.  It will reduce your stress and enable you to live a healthier and wealthier financial lifestyle.  It will trust me.

ACTION STEP

Take some time to review your current financial situation and identify your financial ugly ducklings and take action by turning the ugly duckling into a financial swan.  Just like a duckling will not turn into a swan over night is the same with your personal finances.  You must take one step at a time but if you take action I am sure your ugly duck will turn into a swan quicker than you planned.

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Is finding the time preventing you from simplifying your personal finances?  Simplifying your personal finances will enable you to  spend more time doing the things you enjoy.  If currently do not manage your time now, you may have a difficult time simplifying your personal finances.  So in order to simplify, you have to mange your time more efficient.  You can do this by setting up automatic deposits,  automatic debits and automating your bills are some of the ways you can manage your time more efficiently.

Here are five keys to help you find the time to simplify your personal finances:

Have a vision of your personal financial picture

Take action and stop procrastinating

Always plan ahead

Prioritize your goals and objectives

Plan for the unexpected

Action step

Take a few minutes to decide what you time save actions you implement to help you manage you financial time more efficiently.

If you would like more tips to help you simplify your personal finances make sure you subscribe to simple financial lifestyle email newsletter and subscribe to RSS feed for blog updates.

Do you experience any of these symptoms when thinking about your personal finances:

• Budget dizziness – when trying to create or even think about budgeting

• Debt fever – when reviewing your outstanding debt and wondering how you can eliminate it

• Sweaty emergency fund palms – when trying to determine how much is needed in your emergency fund.

• Late fee hair pulling – when you open your account statement and see that late fee charged to your account.

• Banking knots in your stomach – when trying to reconcile multiple account statements or trying to keep track of multiple banking relationships.

• Retirement savings rash -when trying to determine how much you will need to retire and when you will be able to retire.

If you experience any of these symptoms when you think about your finances, I am not a doctor but I believe you have what is called financial overwhelmedness.  Financial overwhelmedness is the inability to make a decision regarding your finances because you have so many questions and not sure what decision to make.  You are afraid to make a decision because you don’t want to make the wrong one so just don’t make a decision at all.

Since I am not a medical doctor I am not able to prescribe any medication to help cure this.   But here are some tips that will help you overcome your financial overwhelmness and hopefully helps you simplify your financial life.

FOCUS ON THE THINGS YOU CAN CONTROL in your financial life.  Do not spend time worrying about things that are out of your control its a waste of your time. Deal with the things you can control.  For example, you can control how much you spend and save each month. You can control how you allocation your retirement and non-retirement assets but you can not control the stock market or the price of gold.

TAKE ONE STEP AT A TIME As I always state at the end of my post take one step at a time to simplify your personal finances.  I truly believe this.  You must take one step at a time if not you will overwhelm yourself with the information and decisions.  So instead of trying to tackle multiple financial task at a time break them down into simple task or steps to make the process less overwhelming.

ASK FOR HELP If you feeling overwhelmed ask for someone to help you.  I am sure you can someone a friend or family member who has dealt with your situation that is overwhelming you.  If not there are many personal finance bloggers who can provide you with a solution.

TAKE ACTION do not just sit there and not do anything or say to yourself I don’t know where to begin.  Even if you are overwhelmed you will have to begin at some point so why not now.  Take action by take that one step at a time as was identified earlier.  You will only be able to cure yourself by take some action even if its one tiny step.  It’s much easier to tackle one situation at a time then to try to tackle them all at once.

What are some other ways that you have overcome financial overwhelmness?

Til next time take it one step at a time to simplify your finances.

If you enjoy what you’re reading and want to stay up to date on the latest posts please make sure you follow me on Twitter and subscribe to my RSS feed. If you are serious about simplifying your personal finances also subscribe to SIMPLE FINANCIAL LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER.

The Super Bowl will be played in a few hours when my hometown Saints will face the Colts. To prepare for this big day each team has put in hours of preparation time so they can execute their game plan to win the game.  The Saints have designed a defensive game plan to stop the Colts and Peyton Manning from scoring while the Colts have designed a defensive game plan to stop the Saints and Drew Brees ( I hoping the Colts game plan does not work). Just like each Super Bowl team has designed their offensive and defensive game plans to win the Super Bowl. You should design your own personal financial game plan to help you simplify your personal finances so you can win the personal finance game.

Here are a few keys to winning the Super Bowl as well as your personal financial game:

Financial Offensive Keys to the Game

Accumulate Yards

In the game of football, you want your offense to accumulate a lot of yards so you can score.  In the Super Bowl both teams will design plays to gain yards.  Some plays will be designed to gain a lot of yards while other plays will be designed to gain a few yards.  The same can be said for your financial game plan.  Instead of yards you want to accumulate money to save.  So design some short term and long term saving plans to accumulate money.  This will help you win the financial game.

Don’t Get Sacked

Both Super Bowl teams will try to protect their quarterbacks from being sacked.  Having a good offensive line can help you protect your quarterback from being sacked.  In the financial game, the best way to avoid being sacked is to have a financial budget.  A financial budget will show you where the pressure is coming from and will enable you to put extra protection in place to prevent the sack.

Don’t Fumble

To win the Super Bowl each player must protect the football and not fumble it.  To prevent you from fumbling the ball in the financial game, consider consolidating your accounts.  The more accounts you have the more likely you are to fumble.  Consolidating will help you have a better grip and hold on your accounts so you can monitor them better and avoid fumbling.

Financial Defensive Keys to the Game

Protect Your Endzone

On the defensive side each team wants to limit the number of touchdowns the other team scores.  The best way to do this is to have a good defensive game plan in place to eliminate those touchdowns.  In your financial game, you also want to protect your end zone.  The best way to protect your end zone and eliminate those scores is to have insurance in place.  Insurance is a great defense, which can help you hold the other team to field goals or not allow them to score at all.

Avoid the Big Play

If you want to win the Super Bowl your defense can not give up the big play.  The other team may have a few trick plays in their game plan to get that big play to score.  In the financial game, you have to prepare yourself for those unexpected trick plays.  To do this establish an emergency fund, just in case one of those trick plays are called you will be prepared to quickly response and prevent that score from occurring.

Good Red Zone Defense

In the Super Bowl, each teams red zone defense must tighten up to prevent the other team from scoring.  The same goes in the personal financial game.  You should set up red zone alert when your accounts reach predetermined amounts.  By having red zone alerts, you can make adjustments in advance of some things happen like your account being overdrawn.

What are your financial keys to help you win the personal financial game and simplify your personal finances?

TAKE ACTION

If you don’t already have a personal financial game plan in place put one.  You cannot win the game without a good game plan in place.  Once its in place you must execute on your plan.  What good is a plan without execution.

Remember in order to simplify your personal finances you must take one step at a time.

This post was featured in Carnival of Personal Finance #243: Valentine’s Day Edition hosted by Get Rich Slowly

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We all wish it would happen to us one day.  We dream what our lives would be like and all of the things we would buy and the vacations we could take.  But would winning the lottery really simplify your personal finances. It will help you paid off some debt and depending on the amount of money you win you may be able to quit your job. Will paying off debt and quitting your job solve your financial issues?  For some maybe.

However, winning the lottery is a dream many have.  Its the way some feel is the only way they will be able to solve their financial issues. But if you do not properly manage your finances now how would you be able to manage your finances if you won the lottery?  It will not matter if you win the lottery  your financial habits and issues you have now may only get worse.  Even if you won the lottery you would still need to manage your money properly.  Winning the lottery would still require you to:

Set financial goals and objectives – You must know where you want to go.  Do you know where you want to be in one year, two years, or five years from now.    The goals and objectives you establish will be the financial foundation you will build upon.  Without setting financial goals and objectives it is like going on a road trip without a road map.

Establish a budget – Yes you will still need a budget even if you win the lottery.  You can have a bigger budget but you will still need to have one.

Monitor your cashflow – By having a budget you can monitor your inflows and outflows.  You will need to monitor if you are spending more money than you are earning especially if the interest earned on your lottery winnings will be your only source of income.  If you spend more than you are earning regularly you will end up running out of money.

Hire financial advisors – You will definitely need to hire at least an accountant to prepare your taxes and a financial advisor to help you invest your winnings.  You will not want to do this on your own.  Let the experts help you.

Put a estate plan in place – Winning the lottery can have  significant consequences on your estate if you do not properly plan for it.   Your winnings can impact your children’s and grandchildren’s financial future so you want to plan properly if not uncle sam may end up with a significant portion of your winnings upon your death if you do not have a plan in place.

See managing your lottery winnings is no different than managing your current personal finances.  The only difference is the number of zeros on your account balance.    So why not begin to simplify your personal finances just in case you may win the lottery one day.

What are your thoughts would winning the lottery simplify your personal finances?

I am always discussing ways to help you simplify your personal finances.  But many times I hear so many excuses why someone has not simplified their personal finances.  I have decided to give up and stop trying to simplify my personal finances.  What’s the point of simplifying?  There are so many conveniences that I would have to give up  if I simplify my personal finances.  So here are my reasons why I have decided to not simplify my personal finances:

Will never retire so I have decide not to save for retirement. I can instead spend the money on a new car maybe two.  I already have social security deducted from my pay check.  So why do I need to have additional funds put into a 401K.  Having the government set my asset allocate works for me. They do not lose money.  Social Security will be available when I am 65 at least 30 to 40 years from now.

Daily overdraft alert is the best value added service my bank offers.  For only $35.00 per occurrence they inform me that I need to put money in my account.  If they did not inform I would never know when I need to deposit my pay check.  Its a great reminder service and its cheap.

Social hour in the teller line. Did you that you can meet some very interesting people while stand in line waiting for the bank teller at your local branch.  Friday afternoon seems like the most popular day of week.  The tellers are also very nice.  They personally make sure my check is deposited into my account.  I like the personal service and I don’t need to worry.  Its time well spent.

Late payment service charge.  All of my monthly bills allow me for a few extra dollars per month to pay my bill on my schedule.  I like that convenience.  I gives me more time to pay my bills.

ATM Convenience for little fee of $3.00 I can use any ATM machine I want.  You can’t beat that.  Why cross the street to use my bank’s ATM or drive around looking for my bank’s ATM when I have the convenience of using any ATM for a few bucks.

Unlimited check writing is the way to go.  You don’t have to worry about balancing your checkbook as long as you have checks in your checkbook.  Also balancing your checkbook takes to long.  I have daily overdraft alert already established so I can write as many checks as I like without any problems.  If there is a problem my bank will send me a letter to let me know.  Also writing a check to pay my bills also gives me more time to pay the bill since it will take a couple of days to clear plus the mail time it takes to get there.  That’s why I like the late fee charge service.

Multiple credit cards. I like having multiple credit cards with me at all times you never know when you may need to buy something.  If one does not work just keep trying until you find one that is not reached its limit.  The best part about having multiple cards is that I can purchase anything I want each month and I don’t even have to pay the entire bill.  The credit card company provides me with the amount they recommend I pay.  I love the rewards I receive with each card and I only have to pay an annual fee and they provide me with all kinds of services that I never get to use but plan on using them one day.

Financially lucky so who needs a emergency fund. I never have any financial emergencies.  Why establish an emergency fund when I can just charge it to my credit card and I can pay the payment the credit card company recommends.

Prefer the reliable mail service instead of signing up for online banking.  What will the computer show me that my monthly statement won’t show me.  I won’t lose a paper statement but I may forget my online password.  I prefer having the postal service deliver my bills to make sure it will arrive on time instead of relying on my bank to pay my bills.  Just not sure they will get it there on time and my bank is not in the delivery business. So why give up all of these conveniences to simplify my personal finances. 

What are your thoughts?  Why haven’t you simplified your finances? If you are still wondering if you should begin to simplify your finances and not sure where to begin sign up for my Simple Financial Lifestyle newsletter and receive a 14 day e-course to help you.