Finances
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Like a business, the household requires intelligent decisions to promote efficient operations

Assets and financial holdings need to be tracked. Paperwork and bookkeeping for properties, investments, contributions and accounts often require more time and attention than available.

Scheduling involves the coordination of several calendars. It may be time to bring a financial organizer into your life.

If that seems overwhelming, then that’s why it’s important to simplify it.

Bookkeepers can take a lot of problems off the plate, giving you more time to do what you want to do.

An experienced bookkeeper will help clean up the books and offer ongoing services. There’s immediate value in consistent money management. This helps the household make better decisions based on the financial realities of the household.

Many people think bookkeeping is just for high net-worth individuals or business owners. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

How about people who are newly widowed or divorced?

Many individuals need help with their finances because they let their partner handle the money. They can feel overwhelmed having to jump headfirst into the finances.

Baby boomers will benefit from finding a professional to help ease some of the stress.

Trying to juggle helping their parents with their finances as well as dealing with their own daily money management is a lot to do for one person. There’s nothing easy about dealing with the roller coaster of emotions that are involved.

Good business practice for entrepreneurs is to have separate credit cards for personal and business expenses. This is also a good rule of thumb for households.

The heads of the household will have a better understanding of what weekly or monthly expenses look like. They will know how to properly manage their income to fit the needs of the household.

We encourage our clients to have multiple checking accounts, and as the income comes in, allocate it to the different buckets.

Have an account for income and then every month allocate the funds where they are needed and you will never find yourself in a situation where you have to rob Peter to pay Paul.

If you aren’t a W-2 employee and pay estimated taxes, put that money aside each pay period. Have a vacation fund, an education fund, an emergency fund and any other funds that you might want to earmark your money for.

Messy books put the household in a situation where it is always working to put out little fire after little fire.

By staying organized through good recordkeeping the household can move from a reactive to a proactive position.

This is the key to staying on top of the household’s finances because an organized back-end system allows people to proactively plan for the future.

When the financial details are professionally prepared, focus can go elsewhere, like taking care of and enjoying time with your family.

Judy Heft is the CEO/founder of Judith Heft & Associates, a financial and lifestyle concierge celebrating 25 years in business helping people stay financially organized. She is the author of “How to Be Smart, Successful and Organized With Your Money.”