With our boys away at overnight camp I have some time on my hands. My plan is not to build a deck or paint a bedroom. I’m planning on something that has weighed on me for much longer. I’m eager to clear out and organize the closets, drawers and cabinets around the house. Between us, I should have tackled these projects years ago, but, I am where I am. I’m making life’s big decisions – like whether I need 20-year-old Rollerblades. Or, whether I’ll wear the shoes from my wedding again. Or, whether it is safe to eat the recently expired Dijon mustard from the back of the cabinet.
Decluttering Your Financial House
This got me thinking about our financial affairs and how we should declutter them from time to time. It doesn’t need to be a top to bottom massive Spring cleaning. It is probably more realistic to focus on one messy financial closet first. And, like the physical world making progress towards a decluttered financial life will leave you feeling lighter and in more control.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Cancel Unneeded Subscriptions: In today’s world, it is effortless to sign up for a monthly $10 subscription for a newspaper, streaming service or workout app. It is also common to move on to the next one and forget the ones you’ve already signed up for (guilty over here). Take a few moments and run through your credit card transactions. You may find $20 – $30 a month of subscriptions you don’t use. Cancelling a few subscriptions will bring you a few small victories.
- Close Small Accounts: I’ve met many people who have bank accounts at the 5 major banks. I appreciate their worldview – but perhaps 2 or 3 is sufficient. You may also a small RRSP that could be merged with your core portfolio. Have a look at the cards in your wallet. Are they all necessary? Eliminating these smaller, unnecessary bits of your financial life reduces the amount of paper you receive, the number of passwords you need to remember and will give you greater clarity around your overall situation.
- Destroy Unneeded Financial Documents: Many people have well-established filing systems. The quarterly Assante statement comes in – file it. The monthly hydro bill arrives – file it. Taxes – file it. The trouble is that there is rarely an approach to purging older documents on the other end. Paper become files. Files become boxes. Boxes become corners of rooms. How do you get rid of hundreds of documents when you have a basic shredder from Walmart? Bring them to us. If you wanted a second set of eyes on what to purge – let me know. I can’t tell you the how happy clients are when they leave a few boxes of documents at my office for shredding.
From my experience, tidying up your financial affairs only has upsides. And, like the house cleaning it takes less time than you think. The results are amazing.
If you have any questions let me know.
