3 Ways to Simplify Your Financial Life
Only a few decades ago, the financial choices that we made were simple. In stark contrast, the number of choices that you have at your disposal are vast.
While this might seem to be advantageous, it can also be overwhelming. For this reason, it is important to simplify as much as possible.
Here are three ways to simplify your financial life:
1: Just One Credit Card Should Do
Simply put, get rid of the credit cards that you don’t need. The wisest thing to do is to consolidate all your purchases on one rewards card that best fits your spending patterns. There are a number of benefits to this apart from the fact that this will reduce the problems that come with losing your wallet.
But make sure that you don’t cancel all your credit cards since it can hurt your credit score. Of course, the simplest option is to keep all your credit cards in a safe place that will make you think twice about using them.
2: Have Your Bank Pay The Bills
There’s no point wasting your time paying your bills when your bank will do this freely at no cost at all. Not only can you set alerts that should help you pay the bills before it’s late but also set up recurring payments to be made. One problems with auto-payments is the difficulty in changing banks as well as being hit with overdraft fees if you don’t have the necessary funds. To avoid that, you can transfer money from your paycheck into a savings account. If you run short of money from your checking account, ask the bank to take from your savings account instead.
3: Keep All Your Files in One Place
There are certain documents that you must keep for as long as you live. Passports, birth certificates, education records, marriage license and divorce decree are some of them. This goes especially for your tax returns since the IRS can take upto three years to audit your return. Save them all in one place. Better still, use technology to reduce paperwork as well. Saving scanned documents over the internet is not so bad since there are a number of storage services that you can use.