5 Safe Steps to Streamline Your Finances

Ease Your Financial Stress!

•  Sign up for direct deposit. More than likely, your employer already has an agreement with a bank or service that allows them to send your paycheck electronically into your account each pay period. Direct deposit is free, saves you time and gasoline, and eliminates the hassle of going to the bank yourself to cash your paycheck. Plus, if you use check cashing centers, you're paying a small fortune in unnecessary fees. Many direct deposit services even deposit your check a day earlier than if you made the deposit yourself. To sweeten the deal, most banks also include a free checking account when you sign up for direct deposit.
   
  

  

  
  
• Use online banking and bill pay. This service is usually free, too. Banks use topnotch, secure, state-of-the-art technology to allow you to monitor your transactions, deposits, and balances over the Internet. Most banks also provide free online bill payment. In fact, I hardly ever use stamps any more when I pay my bills. It makes this chore cheaper, faster and more convenient. Online banking is also safer than mailing in your payments since check stealing from a home mailbox is one of the primary ways identity theft occurs.
  
  
• Automate all regular payments. Many of us use a bank draft to pay our monthly home mortgage or life insurance. Some of us even use this step to ensure we save or invest regularly. Now you can use this same approach to pay for almost every regular expense. Automatic payment protects you from forgetting to make a payment and sometimes gets you a slightly lower interest rate (some student or auto loans). Typically, you can use your bank's online bill payment program or the vendor company's automatic electronic fund transfer system too. Be sure and have the system send you an email whenever it performs an action, too. By the way, I'm guessing some of you are chuckling right now since I obviously forgot to add my credit card payment to my list of automated payments - oops, you're right.
  
  
• Add overdraft protection to your bank account. It's incredibly easy to accidentally forget to log a transaction or make a math error in your checkbook. If you make a mistake that leads you to being overdrawn, current fees for these errors often top $30 per mess up. Plan ahead, sign up for this service, and give yourself some extra breathing room. By linking a credit card or personal line of credit account to your bank account you give yourself a backup if your bank account goes into the red. You'll probably pay a small fee and a little bit of interest to cover this short-term loan but the benefits are worth it.
  
  

  

  
  
• Download your bank and credit card transactions. I've been using personal finance software for several years and love it, especially when reviewing my spending plan or getting ready to do my taxes. The most popular packages are Quicken and Microsoft Money. My favorite actions with my software are to go online, download my bank and credit card statements through their secure servers. The software saves me from having to type all my information into the computer. Once the data is loaded, I quickly work through each transaction and note what part of my budget it goes under. These steps make money management easier, empower you to accomplish more, and know what's going on at the same time. Take the time to set them up and you'll be able to relax a little more, too.
  
  Extract from 2=1's Legacy Magazine