Hints Part 2

Disclaimer: I received a finance degree from a reputable university. I did not get straight A’s and do not consider myself a finance expert in any way. If my advice doesn’t work for you—that is fine, just don’t blame me.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get on to the business. {another quick warning that this is long}

Accounts Spreadsheet
When you are single—life (financially speaking) seems fairly easy. You have a bank account, a credit card or two (which you of COURSE pay off at the end of every month) and a few internet passwords to remember. Then you get married (dun, dun, DUN). All of the sudden you have your accounts, his accounts, your credit cards, his credit cards, your internet passwords, his internet passwords, not to mention that you are trying to find what will work for you as a couple. For Ronnie and I that means one joint bank account, but everyone is different—so do what works for you.

I have found that keeping track of that information was a bit daunting. Everything was in a different place and not necessarily accessible. So, I created a spreadsheet (I LOVE spreadsheets). I’ve even made it accessible to you (a blank one that is—I love you, but not enough to give you my personal information). Click Here. You will need to have a Google account to edit it, but I have left it open to everyone to edit and once you are in the edit screen you can export it (under ‘file’) to your computer so you can do with it as you will. I will warn you that I am not a computer guru. I have a printed copy of the file that I keep in my [soon to be] fire proof box and I also keep an electronic copy that is password protected. (While this will deter some from getting to the document on your computer, a true hacker may be able to access it—you can decide what you want to do).

You’ll notice that mine probably has a few categories that will not pertain to you (I’m pretty sure not everyone needs to know their Hunter’s Safety number), while your finished document will have areas that I don’t have—make it fit your needs. I cannot tell you the number of times I access this document! It would come in handy if one of our wallets was ever stolen (knock on wood) in that I have the phone numbers and account numbers of all of our credit card providers, etc. When Ronnie needed his FAFSA pin (after 3 years of not using it)—there it was. You’ll thank yourself later, I promise.

Checking your Credit
I know you hear a lot about “free credit reports” on television—but what they don’t tell you is that you have to enroll in a monthly-fee program to get that free report. Luckily, the government has mandated that we can get one free credit report from each of the three reporting companies each year. I HIGHLY recommend doing this. If you have never checked your credit before you will want to get reports from all three companies the first time (and then set a date in your calendar to remember to do it again in a year). The reason you want reports from all three is that you will be very surprised about the differences between them. This way you can cancel inactive accounts, clear up any other mistakes and start fresh—so to speak. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com to get started.

After I initially checked all of the reports, I now check our credit every four months—but only from one reporting company. That way I have a more frequent check, but it is still free (get it?). One note: Keep your oldest credit card! Even if you never use it anymore (since usually the credit amount is very low and it doesn’t have rewards). A LOT of your credit is based on this amount of time you have been tracked. Once you close an account, it will still be on your report, but doesn’t help with your credit at all. Also—the free service offered just includes the credit report itself and does not include your credit score. You can purchase that at the time that you request your report (for usually around $7 per company). I only pay for our scores once a year—to save some dough.

Budgeting
I probably don’t need to tell you that programs like Quicken are awesome. I also probably don’t need to tell you that these programs cost money. I took a Personal Finance class my senior year of college that CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER. And yes, that really does need to be in all caps. It was a 4000 level course however, and a few of the concepts we covered require a bit of a finance background. But do not despair. The marvelous teacher has launched a FREE website that is essentially an exact copy of the class (minus a few of the advanced concepts I mentioned). I have been using the budgeting spreadsheet he provides since I graduated—and love it. REALLY love it. The entire website—which I strongly, STRONGLY encourage you to check out is at http://personalfinance.byu.edu/ and the budget sheet is located here {it is TT04 in the document list}.

I don’t know if you can tell by now, but I feel strongly about being in control of your personal finances. In fact, I learned so much from the Personal Finance class I mentioned (including VITAL information for buying a home, a car, etc) that I wrote a letter to the president of my university letting him know how it had changed my life and that I believed that a simplified version should be added to the general requirements to graduate from college. I like to think that that letter is the reason that the new, free website exists. [I can dream—right?]

So there you have it—the secret to my success (if you consider living in an apartment and going to graduate school a success). My little family is getting there—one baby step at a time. Feel free to comment with questions, or let me know about things that have worked for you—I’m always looking for a better way to do things!