Have you thought to yourself that it’s time to get your finances organized? If you find your finances are in disarray, you need to follow a financial binder organizer plan.
Why do you need a financial binder?
A financial binder is how you can keep all of your important financial documents together and organized. It’s a great feeling to know you can reach for your binder and find important documents such as your mortgage statement and information, bank information, investment information and legal documents.
Being organized takes the stress out of finding papers when you need them in a pinch.
Financial binders are also ideal for creating your financial goals and storing them in a place that helps you be accountable to them. Financial goals include vacation planning, paying off your mortgage or car loan, buying a vacation property. There are so many ways you can create a financial goal – just make it true to your purpose.
Everyone has unique financial goals, so what would be considered to one person may not appeal to another. When you choose goals that are important to you it’s easier to work for them and maintain motivation.
It’s time to create a cash budget binder
Very organized people create a budget that is planned out for year and they monitor their financial progress against the cash budget that they created.
When you create a budget binder you can divide sections with the following ideas: start with a cover sheet, use a debt tracker and debt repayment schedule, create a savings tracker, organize your monthly bills and monthly expenses, create your financial goals and savings goals, and leave a section for your notes.
You can use financial binder printables to help you create the financial binder. You can find financial binder printables on etsy or pinterest.
Financial binder organizer
You can find some great templates that are decorative and keep everything in place. It’s great to have all your financial information organized and stored in one place.
Another way to keep your financial binder organized is by creating these sections:
Net worth statement
Tracking your net worth is an important part of having a healthy financial plan. Personal net worth calculations are the best way to determine your wealth. It isn’t about how much money you make, it’s how you manage your money.
You could be making a large annual salary but if you spend every penny on luxuries and consumption, you will be no richer tomorrow than you are today. But if you create a financial plan for yourself and you track your net worth and watch it grow, that is how you create wealth.
Financial goals
As mentioned earlier, create financial goals that are specific, measureable, attainable, realistic and timely. You don’t want to create a goal of buying a hockey team if that is not reasonably within reach. Create financial goals that you feel motivated to work towards.
Budget
It is smart to create a monthly budget that helps you plan out your spending in a month. A budget is a tool that measures the amount of money that you have coming in for a month, and measures the money that you have going out that month. When you spend more money than you are bringing it that produces debt.
When you spend less money than what you are bringing in that is a good thing, and it’s called living within your means. You need to live within your means because it means that you are managing your money well. When you live outside of your means and build up debt, that is not a sustainable lifestyle. You cannot keep living that way.
Saving and investing
Having a plan for saving your money and investing your money for your financial future such as retirement savings is a financially smart to make. You will need a way to support yourself during retirement if you want to live above the poverty line and have no pension to support you.
When you invest your money responsibly it will grow exponentially and provide you income as you age. Preparing for your retirement in a financial manner is one step in saving.
You can find other reasons to invest your money. You could invest in an education savings program for your kids to go to school or invest your money for a nice nest egg.
Whatever your reasons are for investing, make it attainable so that you will stay motivated.
Insurance plan
Keeping your insurance papers in your financial binder is a smart plan. Types of insurance plans include medical and dental insurance, life insurance, house and car insurance, and insurance plans such as critical illness insurance.
Insurance planning should be a part of your financial plan because if you are not covered during a devastating blow such as an accident or critical illness, it will be very stressful. Ensure your insurance plan is covering all your financial risks.
The bottom line is having a financial binder will help keep all your financial information organized and in one spot. It’s always great to know exactly where you can find important papers when you need them.
If you’re looking for templates on how to create your own budget binder, try Pinterest or etsy where they are there in abundance.
