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!

Fasting: Going Tech Free Once A Week.

In case you haven’t noticed, there seems to be about a million “simplicity” blogs launched every single day. Seems that more and more people want to slow down, live purposely, and declutter their lives. I totally understand where they are coming from, believe me! However, there is one thing that seems to actually be increasing the noise in our lives – technology. Cellphones, laptops, iPads, TV, blogs, Tumblrs, Facebook, Twitter, GBuzz, navigation units – you name it and our lives are surrounded by technology. I am not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, as I make my living because of this technology. But sometimes it gets to be too much, and because of that I have decided to take 1 day off a week from it all. No TV, no computers, no cellphones, no nothing. A while back I left my home for the day without my cellphone, and it was the most amazing feeling to be that free! No one could call me, and there was no checking my email, my Twitter stream, or my Facebook page. Hallelujah! It was so great to actually be experiencing what I was doing instead of staring down at a computer screen.

Thus, my technology fast began.

It’s not always perfect – sometimes I need to break it to take care of something, and sometimes I forget that I was even doing it. But for the most part, I stick to it. And it gives my mind a break from the constant bombardment of information, information, and more information. It cannot be healthy to be constantly “connected” like we are!

So, my suggestion to you – in your quest to declutter, slow down, and simplify – take a tech break every once in a while. Turn it all off for a day. Leave the house without a cellphone. Remember when you used to be able to do that, and if you didn’t answer the phone people just left you a message? Try it for a day. You may be pleasantly surprised at the experience.