Simplifying Your Finances

While I was at Columbia College during my Financial Literacy training, I had the opportunity to meet and speak with Harold Pollack, the author of the book, The Index Card. I have always liked simplification and ways to do things easier and more efficiently, and this is a great example of this.

Finances don’t have to be rocket science, you can make your finances simple and create your own rules. He is someone, like me, who learned to make better choices with his finances. It’s never too late to start and take that first step towards your goals. He has 10 steps that he wrote on an index card that he uses to manage his finances.

So after reading his book, we made our own list for where we are right now with our finances at this stage in life. We thought about these key areas:

$  Savings – emergency, retirement, goal savings, etc. – set a goal.
$  Debt – face your debt and make a plan to payoff.
$  Insurance – make sure you have the coverage you need.
$  Investments – contributions and money management – really understand what you are doing.  Don’t do this blindly.
$  Tax Advantage Savings – understand what is available and take advantage of it.

Now create your index card and post it somewhere you can see it all the time. Finances don’t have to be complicated. Start your journey today.