May
Now Available: Interactive workbooks to accompany the 52 Organizing Missions program.
Each workbook contains 13 printable missions - with fully interactive planning worksheet, to-do list and success journal for every mission. Find out more.
UPDATE: You can now get your weekly organizing mission delivered free to your inbox. Click here to sign up for 52 Organizing Missions.
Welcome to the third of our 52 Organizing Missions.
If you’ve completed the previous two missions (Get Organized Mission #1: Fill a Hu-u-uge Trash Bag and Get Organized Mission #2: Detox Your Briefcase/Tote/Bag), congratulations!
Keep up the momentum with this week’s task, which helps you get your finances sorted.
This is one of those high-payoff projects. It takes only a little time to set up yet saves time, bother and possibly penalty charges later on.
Disclaimer: This post is designed to provide organizing help, not financial advice. Please be proactive and decide whether you should talk to a financial professional.
Remember – you only have to spend 30 minutes to complete the basic mission. If you want to go further check out the Extended Organizing Mission Options below.
Ready?
Get Organized Mission #3: Organize Your Bill Payment
Step 1: Gather copies of all your regular bills
Your regular bills might include:
- Mortgage/rent
- Utilities
- Internet
- Cell phone
- Landline
- Car loan payments
- Credit card payments
- School fees
- Subscriptions.
Step 2: Set up automatic bill payment where available
Many of your regular bills may be automatically payable each month from your back account or credit card. Check for details on the back of your bill or look up your account online.
You can generally set up automatic payment by phone, online, or by using an ancient type of admin called ‘a form’. (Don’t fight it – whatever effort you make now will be worth the saved time, money and hassle.)
It goes without saying that you need to be able to cover these bills from your credit card or bank account. But I’ve said it anyway.
Step 3: Set up internet banking or phone banking
Ideally, all your bills will be automatically payable. If so, your organizing mission is complete and you can spend any remaining time tidying your financial papers.
For any bills that aren’t automatically payable, set up internet banking or phone banking to pay these bills at your convenience. Phone, visit or get online to set up your accounts.
Ongoing
When a bill arrives, check whether it will be autopaid. The bill will say something like: ‘Payment of $287 will be made by autopayment from your credit card on 28 November 2009. Please ensure funds are available on this date.’
If it’s a pesky one that can’t be autopaid, diarize the due date. If you use something like Outlook you can set a reminder, too. And on the due date, pay it.
Alternatively, if you have several bills that aren’t able to be autopaid, you might prefer to save time and batch the tasks by paying them all at once, online or by phone – but before the earliest due date.
Dos & Don’ts
- Don’t procrastinate on organizing your bill payment. These 30 minutes of personal organization will save you time – and possibly money – every single month.
- Do keep any passwords for phone or internet banking safe and secure. Be organized and smart!
Extended Organizing Mission Options
Want to go beyond this 30-minute organizing mission?
- Since credit card payments are at the higher end of interest charges, pay them off in full in each month if you can.
- If you have high-school-age kids, this is an excellent mission to complete with them. Teach them valuable financial and organizing skills all in one go.
- If you have ancient bills and receipts you no longer need for tax or accounting reasons, consider shredding them now.
Ready, Set, Go!
Remember – move quickly, act fast, don’t overthink.
Before You Go – Please Check In
You’re now accountable to your organizing mission-mates! Once you’ve completed this week’s Get Organized Mission please add a comment to let us know you’ve done your assignment and you’re keeping your commitment.
(Click ‘Comment’ at the very top of this post or scroll down to the bottom. Depending on how you’re viewing this post, one of those options will be available for you.)
And see you back here next week!
UPDATE:
You can now get your weekly organizing mission delivered free to your inbox. Click here to sign up for 52 Organizing Missions.
Image by *_Abhi_*
Did you like this post? Please social bookmark it!
Related posts:
- Social Bookmark :
- Digg
- Technorati
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
Comments
Leave a comment
Subscribe
Like this site? Get my latest
blog posts by email or RSS.
[What does this mean?]
What's Right For Me?
To help choose the product best suited to your needs, view our comparison grid. Our goal-setting and organization tools cover personal, home and student areas.
2010: Achieve Your Personal Goals
Life & Goal Organizer is a step-by-step system for moving from procrastination to action across 12 life areas. Get Organized Today!
Connect
From The Forum- Set Yes Priorities – And Know When To Say No [Get Organized Mission #35]
- Reflect, relax, reward - Fashion Magazine
- Pare down your pants
- Simplify your swimwear
- Justify the jeans worth keeping
- Shed shirts and tops
- Manage your medicines
- Declutter a drawer
- Get Organized in 5 Minutes: Inspect Your Pillows
- Reflect, relax, reward - Add a plant
- Prune The Pot Plants
- Dispose of the disposables
- Contract a cleaner
- Clear the cupboard tops
- Shine those surfaces
@MicheleConnolly nice tips on cutting down time on paying your bills. Organize Your Bill Payment http://ow.ly/5V6J
I got domains, but not sure which one will be developed first so leaving no url here.
Just discovered you and read the bill payment one. Working for me still is either online monthly or call in to payment lines for each bill. I’m not ready to switch as it takes only a very short amount of time. Not enough to bother with.
I hope I will see some on email explosion organization or did I miss it? Oh, what about getting those attachments or being on teleseminars and get tons of downloads? Printing them all off or saving them.
It would be nice to go into your organized brain. It sounds like you love organizing as much as I love health/wellness and excellent customer service. Two area I’m exploring to develop. Which one first is question that remains unsolved. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Carol,
You can find email explosion organization ideas …
In these posts:
- Organizing Technology: The ONLY 4 Things You Should do with New Email
– Organizing Technology: How to never, ever check your email again
In this article:
– How to Slay the Post-Holiday Inbox Dragon
Or in this e-book ($19):
– Inbox Zen | 7 Simple Steps For Making Peace With Your Email
The section on ‘How to slim your inbox by going on an information diet’ in Inbox Zen addresses what you can do with all that free stuff you get online.
Ciao for now,
Michele
Got there in the end – sorted my filing out – don’t think I’ve done it for a year!
I’m good at paying things but then throw it in a drawer instead of filing – so mission well accomplished!
I went and bought an accordian folder and sorted bills by month and by date due. Once I did that I continued onto my file cabinet. What a mess! Some things are better left untouched. Im still working on the cabinet. Ebill has been signed up for and also mobile billing! So much better than paper trails. Bring on the next task. Mission accomplished!
RT @micheleconnolly Get Organized Mission #3: Organize Your Bill Payment | Get Organized Wizard http://tinyurl.com/q3w3bl
My bills are already paid on line, I’ve got online banking! The only thing left is the shredding and getting rid off papers. No shredder so I may have a little bonfire outside tonight@
I’m happy to get this one out of the way. Dealt with the bills that are solely my responsibility and I’ve pruned my filing to the current year other than tax matters.
Ticking the missions off one by one and will hopefully get up to date by the end of this home vacation! It’s a good feeling.
Done, done and done (it helps that I had online banking before)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mission #2 was completed so I jumped straight into #3. Most were already organised, just needed some fine tuning.
Mission 1, 2, and 3 are complete. On to the next ones…..Bring it!
Okay this was an easy one for me as we have always had all our bills direct debit and most are paperless, so it feels cheating to say i’ve done it!
I have done it!!. IN fact, I got so organized, I am caught up even on payments until September. OOhhhhhh I feel good.
Thank you
This is one area that I do keep organized so this task was a cinch. Thanks though. I am looking forward to the next challenge.
There was nothing much I could do for this one. I have my bill payments set up exactly how I want them. And I’m up to date with my budget and all that.
This turned into a difficult task with one bill. I found that someone had set up a username and password on my account that was not me. I had to contact the company and have their assistance in resetting the username and password. Other than that, this was a great thing to do. I set up every thing from credit cards to the gas bill. I can now pay all of these online when or before they are due.
Done!
Hey Deb,
Sounds like a good thing that you uncovered that phony username on your account!
This mission is a bit pesky, but worth the short-term hassle.
M
Hi everyone,
Like I said to Deb, I realize this is a pesky mission.
Thanks for persevering, though. The short-term bother will be long-forgotten, but the peace of mind and convenience will make life easier for years to come.
That’s what I call a good use of time!
M
This one was easy as already do just finesses a couple of things
Thanks
Still having probs with no. 1
At last an easy task – we did this years ago; all payments (including weekly food shopping) are automated from one bill paying account into which we (husband and self) both pay monthly sums. I just keep an eye on monthly balance to work out if spending is needing cutting back or monthly payments need to be up-dated.
Hi, Sally!
Same here. Being out of work for several months a few years back really made us get efficient. I’m a huge fan of our bank’s online bill-paying system, and use it for all our bills. Any bills that can be delivered electronically, are. Hubby’s paycheck is direct-deposited, and we automatically deposit an amount for savings every month. I’m up to date with all our shredding (though some filing will be attacked tomorrow), and the credit cards are paid off monthly. This task reminded me that I need to order our yearly credit report — thanks!
This one was easy, payments are already organized.
Done!
Done. I am happy to say that my payments were already organized. But I used the time to cear out some paper that have been laying around instead.
Im kinda cheating on this one if you think about it, im too young to have bills. LOL, oh well I cleaned out my closet.
mission 3 is one i was already “on top of” I am pleased to be discovering I’m not as bad an organizer as I thought : )
cheated on this one. It’s my hubby’s job and I let him take care of all that. So I created files for my tax receipts. Now I can file receipts under the tax category and they will be all in one place. Figured this was sort of in line with paying bills.
no need – done this already
Well I got carried away and did this project already. I got tried of missing all the dates and the phone calls. So Now Missions 1,2,3 are all DONE. It feels really good. This works for me.
Get Organized Mission #3: Organize Your Bill Payment – http://bit.ly/GVhQR
My husband takes care of this. We are always on top of it, meeting once every two weeks to review financial s. We have systematized it so that it doesn’t take over us. Now it’s painless, we can breathe and have fun!
Thanks for your tips, this is an extremely important area that HAS to be organized.
Done! Looking forward to the next one
Interesting that so many of the comments indicate that they were all ready on top of this. This is not my area of expertise – in fact, this mission almost killed me. But it’s organized. And I feel much better.
Hi Flora,
I think it’s the things that we find most difficult that can bring us the most benefit – and relief. Good on you for persevering with it!
Michele
I really had a hard time with this. Some of my payments are already automated, but I’m just not very organized with the rest of them. I also have a hard time with paperless statements (they get buried quickly). I’ve set myself up to get email reminders through my bank when certain bills are due, and I’ll keep doing this as other bills come in this month. Now if I only had a proper place to file them….
Thanks for persevering, Lauren!
You might find these future Missions helpful:
Get Organized Mission #9: Filing System Nirvana
http://www.getorganizedwizard.com/blog/2009/07/get-organized-mission-9-filing-system-nirvana/
Get Organized Mission #12: Organize Your Accounts & Credit Cards
http://www.getorganizedwizard.com/blog/2009/07/get-organized-mission-12-organize-your-accounts-credit-cards/
Keep up the great work!
M
Having everything set up and scheduled makes my life so much easier. What used to take me at least 2 hours a month, I can now do in less than 10 minutes! Organizaion is the key!
I have been putting this task on the back burner. I am also finding it hard to organize my bills paperless. I have a few done but it is really a chore to get moving . Hanging in there though, have a few done.
This one was pretty easy because my husband pays all of the bills, but I did make some adjustments for myself and I think it will work out great.
I have been working on my tithing, charitable giving and savings. It was a daunting thought, but I got the perfect solution. I have a separate bank account from me and my husbands joint account. I went to payroll to have them deposit a portion of my check to the joint account and a portion to the “Makes you feel good” acount. It’s great. the money is already set aside for my tithing, I have an automatic deduction coming from this account to my savings every month, and because of that, I do not have to limit the money that I give to charity already. The check card on this account is a Susan B. Komen check card so the change is rounded up to the next dollar. The extra change automatically goes to support breast cancer. One of my favorite causes.
I really enjoyed doing this mission
Lydia
Done. Was not super fun. But it needed to be done. I bet I will be happy about it later. Thanks.
@Cheryl,
A lot of people struggle with this mission (see above).
You’ll feel fabulous when it’s done.
Please persevere!
M
Done. My bank offers bill pay so I can control paying bills one on one or at automatic intervals. Makes my life much easier. I just have to be good about shredding paid bills when they don’t need to be kept. I throw all receipts in a basket and sort them by month. They go into a spreadsheet that cuts down time at tax time.
done!
finished this one finally. Scary, also started oprah’s debt diet to go with it!
WHEW what a task..Thank you I had no idea I was so out of control
Not much to do for this task. Bill payments are one area that I am actually on top of. Looking forward to the next task.
On to #4
I have this one under control after almost 40 years of bill paying and money managing in our home. Just needed a little tidying up and tossing a few things, but most is under control. On to number 4.
Done
This was an easy one for me… I have been paying bills by auto withdrawal for years. I have forgotten what the inside of my banking establishment looks like.
Easy one for me to. I’ve gotten rid almost all of my paper bills. Now if could get my husband to do the same!
done
Had been putting this off for a while but now All done. A huge relief
Got it done just today and ready for the next project.
Mission three – done. Redid my budget – and organised a monthly bill paying system and storage for receipts.
This was something I have done for sometime. It is so great to not worry about when most of my bills are due. The only bills I have to keep track of are the yard service (only check I write!), car payment, credit card bill and mortgage payment (which I get reminders for and pay online). Everything else is billed to the credit card or debited from bank. I know people think using a credit card for everything can get you in trouble debtwise but as long as I budget and pay it off every month which I do Im ok plus I get points for free hotel stays. Looking forward to next mission.
Done….decided to use the MS Money that I had bought at least 11/2 years ago. Looked at it several times and this just gave me a push to set it up and use.
I’ve been doing this fo quite some time. I spend 10 minutes (my morning break) at work every 2 weeks to pay myself and my bills. It’s amazing how little mail I get now. And the best thing is I stay ahead of everything and miss nothing. Budgeting became a breeze.
Thanks to online bill payment, I do this anyway. “Check!”
use the online bill pay a lot. thanks for the review.
Our banking and most of the bill paying is already done online and through automatic withdrawl. What’s up next?!
Done!
Done. This was kind of easy for me since my husband does our bills.
Got ‘er done.
done.
Easy to say “done” b/c almost all of my bills are automatically paid and our cc is auto-paid in full each month too. The shredding bit should be fun, looking forward to that!
Another great thing to do is to switch you statements to electronic statements instead of paper ones. Save some trees!
Organized ! Such a time saver….love it.
This one was already done so I’m ready for my next mission!
Already done !!!!!!!!!!!
Step 1 of this Mission is in the hubs’ territory, so I skipped it. Steps 2 & 3 are already implemented, so I’m marking this as DONE! As for the “Extended Organizing Mission” of dealing with “ancient bills and receipts”… unfortunately, I have to face this Paper Giant by force(http://messieconfessions.blogspot.com/), so this will be on ongoing daily mission until completion! I’m also policing the mail to keep the growth rate to a bare minimum! On to Mission #4!
Done,Done, Done…
(Actually I was already 1/2 way done, but spent my 1/2 hour finishing…)
My bills were already set up online so I used this time to look up each one and make a note of the balance, monthly payment and interest rate. This helps give me a better idea what I need to pay off first.
I only have one bill I have to pay manually and I never remember! Couldn’t tell you how many times my water’s been cut off – not because I don’t have the money but because my mail is squirrly and if I don’t see the bill I don’t think about it. I’m getting this set up on autopay tomorrow!