Managing financials for a household can be overwhelming. Especially when you consider the number of bills, receipts, paystubs, account statements, and other essential paperwork that is received by a household on a monthly basis.
For people living with physical disabilities who have many added costs of living, medical bills, and benefits claims to navigate, it’s easy to lose track of everything you need. A reliable organized household filing system will help keep the necessities at your fingertips.
Design Your Filing System
It’s helpful to have folders set up for each major category: health, job, banking, credit cards, taxes, brokerage, home, automobiles, insurance, major purchases, and other loans.
On a weekly basis, go through your received mail file and sort everything into these folders. While some items can be shredded and thrown out, you will need to save insurance papers, receipts for major purchases, account statements, pay stubs, health forms, and anything related to your taxes (see part one of the blog series). Also, create a folder for the current year's taxes—as you have items you’ll need in April, add them to the file so they will be easy to access come tax time.
Organize Your Billing
Household bills should be filed using a separate system. Bill books, which are available in office supply stores, are a great way to keep your bills organized. Sort your bills by the due date and add them to the folder of the month they are due. You can also track bills in a personal finance program, spreadsheet, or online service. It’s best to pay household bills on a weekly basis, although if you only have a few bills, you can pay them bi-weekly or monthly. Online bill pay systems are a great way to stay organized, save money on stamps, and get your payments cleared quickly. Setting bills up on auto-pay will alleviate the stress of remembering to pay on time and negate late fees. If you opt for paper bills make sure that you write and mail your checks well in advance of the due date so that you aren’t charged a late fee.
Have you bookmarked the new Mobility Credit Acceptance online portal to make or schedule your mobility loan payments? Click here to be redirected, or go to https://mymobilitytrustaccount.com/login
On a regular basis, either semi-annually or annually, go through each of your folders and clear out anything that is no longer needed. If any of the folders are getting too full, separate them out by year, and store newer information in the front of your file drawer, so that it’s more accessible.
While organizing can take some time in the beginning, having all financial information sorted appropriately will make day-to-day bill paying and home financial management less stressful and so much easier.