Last week we talked about how managing your finances well helps you lighten your mental load at home. Suze Orman is another bestselling author on personal finance, with over 25 million books in circulation, available in 12 languages worldwide. In addition to her television show, she offers a variety of resources on her website, suzeorman.com.
Orman’s homepage offers a Choose Your Goal section with topics such as credit and debit, saving, investing, home ownership, student loans, retirement, life insurance, family and estate planning, and Social Security.
Another route that my sons followed is to take a personal finance course at a local college. Ivy Tech offers a good one. Here’s their class description:
“This course will prepare you for a lifetime of worthwhile personal financial planning. The tools you will learn are useful, realistic, and easy to work into your regular routine. They will help you gain control over the financial impact of the choices you make. You’ll learn to create and use a budget, borrow and invest wisely, make intelligent decisions about insurance, and plan for your financial future. You’ll develop a retirement savings plan, and you’ll be better prepared to make large purchases and plan for taxes. You’ll learn the essentials of household bookkeeping, record-keeping requirements, and much, much more.”
This course is offered here in Indiana for about $130 currently. I know similar classes are held all over the U.S. I don’t think you can find a better investment for such an important topic to help you live a happier life without the load of financial difficulties weighing you down.
Now that you have some guidance on how to be smart with money, let’s lighten the labor of managing it. I love how technology can help us with our finances. I’ve been a big fan of Quicken software for decades now.
It’s available in different languages, offers free mobile apps, and helps you not only pay bills and people, but track these expenses. I like its online bill paying feature. Quicken makes balancing a checkbook and your budget fast and easy. Current plans start at $35 a year.
Of course, there are other online or computer-based systems you can use to help with home finances. The Balance recommends Quicken for an overall system but also suggests Mint for budgeting and expense tracking, YNAB to help you improve your financial literacy and manage your monthly budget, Mvelopes for zero based budgeting, and TurboTax for – what else – taxes.
Speaking of taxes, these are a huge mental load all by themselves. I can’t imagine doing ours anymore without some sort of software or hiring an accountant. But even with this help, you can still be bogged down if you don’t have an organized system for gathering necessities throughout the year for tax preparation.
Whether you scan everything and keep electronic copies of receipts, are more like me and still like to keep paper copies, or a combination of both, putting everything consistently in one place throughout the year will help make tax time easier and prevent a lot of mental labor.
Amy Shankland is a writer and fundraising professional living in Noblesville with her husband John, two sons, two dogs and a cat. You can reach her via email at amys@greenavenue.info.