How to Get Your Finances in Check

Whether you're suffering with unemployment due to the economy or you're just really bad with keeping up on bills, organization can really be your key to successfully managing your finances, and getting your life back on track. Slacking on bills or paying off debt can destroy your credit and your well being. Believe it or not, "a survey, by the National Depression Campaign, found that financial problems were cited by 88% of people as a trigger for their depression." (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/324900.stm)

Men and Women have been suffering with money problems since the beginning of time. Thankfully, living in a time where technology is at your finger tips; keeping a realistic budget handy on your computer or your PDA can really help your finances. Surely there must have been countless time's where you've said to yourself "I completely forgot I had to pay this bill this month," or "I didn't realize I owed this much this month," or even "I had no idea when this was due." With the amount of bills the average person has, there is no way to mentally keep track of your finances and/or debt that way. This isn't even mentioning the thought of even being able to put any money in your savings account.

Here are a few tips to help you get your finances, debt and even savings heading in the right direction.

Step 1: Create a new spreadsheet - it's a great place to put text and numbers that will also allow the advanced user to take advantage of financial formulas.

Step 2: List all re-occurring bills in one column, put the total amount owed in another column, and the current month's payment in the 3^rd column.

Step 3: Copy this worksheet and make another 11 worksheets, so you'll have one worksheet per month. This way, you can list any specific payments that may be pertinent to one particular month.

Step 4: Figure out how much money you'll need in groceries, gas and spending money per week, and place that under the listed bills.

Step 5: Now you have a list of everything you are going to need to pay every month. Take your monthly income and subtract all of your bills, groceries, gas and spending money. The amount of money you are left with after that will be considered your savings for the month, and can get carried over to the next month.

If you can keep to this simple budget and not spend a dime over what you had budgeted for at the beginning of the month, not only will you have a road map for paying off debt, but you will also be able to forecast how much money you'll be able to save over a month's period of time.

This system can really relieve the money stresses that you have, and help you to not be afraid of the unknown anymore. You will know what to expect every month, and you will see your bank account continue to climb and remain in a constant healthy state. Good Luck!