Simple Is…

A duffel bag, a laptop computer, and an iPhone. That’s what I left home with 6 days ago and will continue to live out of for another 8 days. What is the point of all that stuff back in my apartment if I can live comfortably out of a duffel bag for a few weeks? I have clothes, a toothbrush, toothpaste, some soap, deodorant, 2 pairs of shoes, a pair of sunglasses, a hat, my MacBook Pro, my iPhone, 1 power charger, and my stainless steel Klean Kanteen. Guess my purging will continue when I return home – every time I go away I tend to get reinvigorated to get continue getting rid of “stuff”! Posting as been light around here because I have been traveling but should resume once I return. (Besides, does less posting = simplicity? )

How I Simplified My Finances This Year.

Since I graduated college (ahem, 16 years ago), I have been assembling a hodge-podge of financial accounts in different places – checking, saving, stocks, bonds, retirement, mutual funds, etc. Every month I had statements delivered to me from each of these places, making it difficult to keep track of what I had and where it was. This is how my account list looked up until 4 months ago:

Checking – Bank of America
Savings – Bank of America
Emergency Fund – ING Direct
Taxes Fund – ING Direct
Old Savings – Credit Union
Individual Stocks – Scottrade
ETF’s – Sharebuilder
Bank of America (inherited) Stock – Computershare
CA Tax Exempt Bond Fund – Commonwealth Financial
Mutual Fund – T Rowe Price
Roth IRA – T Rowe Price

That is an absurd amount of different accounts to try to keep track of. Add in the fact that my “salary” comes in the form of about 45 different 1099 forms each year, and tax time for me is a giant mess. So, in an effort to simplify my life, in the last couple of months I have worked really hard to get all these accounts consolidated down to the fewest number I could. And here is what it looks like now:

Checking – Charles Schwab Bank
Saving – Charles Schwab Bank
Individual stocks, including BofA stock, bond fund – Charles Schwab Brokerage
Emergency Fund – ING Direct
Taxes Fund – ING Direct
Mutual Fund – T Rowe Price
Roth IRA – T Rowe Price

I went from 7 financial accounts down to just 3, which makes my financial life a whole hell of a lot easier to keep track of. Why do we complicate things that could be handled so much easier? I also no longer receive any paper statements from any of my accounts (banking, credit cards, etc) and pay all my bills online. If you still have your accounts spread over way too many banks and are still receiving paper statements each month, I highly recommend consolidating and simplifying. It’s amazing how much time it frees up and headaches it eliminates!

Simply Carfree: Fantastic Book For Those Looking To Ditch Their Cars.

Thinking of getting rid of your car in order to simplify and slow down? Then you need to read this e-book by Tammy from Rowdy Kittens. Titled “Simply Carfree“, it is a brilliant 82 page guide to getting out of your car and learning to live carfree and on a bicycle instead. Covering such important topics as buying a bike, commuting to work, buying gear, carrying groceries and getting healthy, I will be referring to it religiously once I return to Southern California this year. When I lived there before I was carfree and relied on my bike and skateboard to get around. While I plan on getting a car to fix up and restore, my primary source of transportation will be either a bike or a motorcycle, so this guide from Tammy is quite timely for my needs.

And as an environmentalist, I appreciate Tammy’s talk about reducing one’s carbon footprint by trading in their daily commuter car for a bicycle. Even if you live somewhere that going carfree isn’t an option, just taking a few tips from this book can save you money, help you get healthy, and simplify your life just enough to start taking notice of the world around you. Good stuff.

Simple Carfree is on sale for $9.95 for the first 500 people who download the book, and after that the price will go up to $12.99. Either way, it’s a value for those of you looking to go Simply Carfree. Well done, Tammy!