Tag Archives: financial

Financial Tip Friday – Saving -vs- Investing

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Savings-and-Investments

Deciding what to do with your savings can be very difficult. You try to split it up between emergency funds, rainy day funds, retirement funds, college funds, etc. Knowing what funds to put into savings and what need to be investing is simple!

Money that you need to spend in the next few years, lets say 1-5 years, belongs in savings. This includes a down payment for a house, emergency funds, vacation funds, basically anything that you may need to get your hands on quickly. Put it in a low risk savings account or money market account. Try to find a savings account that has a decent APY. As of right now, I use Capital One 360 for all of my savings and the APY is, ugh, just ok. Shop around before opening up any account!

Money that you don’t need for at least seven years is money that should be invested. We’re talking about things like retirement funds and college tuition funds for young children. I am no professional financial advisor and for these kinds of funds, I couldn’t tell you where to invest all your cash, but do it wisely and if you need to dish out some money to talk to someone that’s knowledgeable in investing these things, do it! Totally worth it!

I hope this helps! Have a great weekend!

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Financial Tip Friday! – Cut Some Financial Fat

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This is the time of year when budgets are being made and people are making financial decisions that can change the outcome of their entire year!. It’s also a great time of year to cut some financial fat out of that budget!

trim the fat

When you’re sitting down with your spouse, partner, roommate, or even just with yourself and you’re discussing your budget, make sure you lay everything out on the table and see what you really need to be spending your money on this year.

Like, do you really need to be enrolled in Netflix, Hulu, & Redbox? Probably not. Is that Verizon Fios Quantum High Speed internet really making a huge difference? I can tell you from personal experience, NO!  Wasting money on things like disposable coffee cups when it’s way better for your wallet, and not to mention a little thing called the environment, if you just use a regular traveling mug! I didn’t mean to go all green on you.

You don’t need to cut down to the bare necessities but really analyze what it is that you’re actually utilizing!

Happy Friday!

Organizing on a Budget – #6

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I was searching online for a 12 x 12 paper holder for my scrapbook paper so that I could free up storage space in one of the drawers in my white storage container. I found a really awesome Cropper Hopper Paper Holder on Amazon.

It was perfect for the amount of paper that I have and it was only $7 something and eligible for Amazon Prime free two-day shipping. Though the price has went up to $10.70 since I bought it late last, it’s still totally worth it. It holds up to 200 sheets of paper and it’s really easy to store. I actually decorated mine with some really pretty tissue paper and some mod podge.

It fits perfectly with my binders. I found the same product at scrapbook.com for $6.65 but you need to pay for shipping so it may be worth it if you pair it with any other scrapbooking items that you may need.

I also found a similar item on amazon. It’s pretty much the horizontal box version of  the vertical stand up box. And it’s also eligible for Amazon Prime free shipping!

This one runs for $10.99 so the prices are very similar and I’m sure you’d be able to decorate this one and make it pretty also.

The best part of all of this is that now I have a drawer open to store random stuff in! HOORAY!

Happy MONDAYYYY!

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If you use or know of any affordable organizational supplies, I’d love to know and feature you on my blog. Comment with your e-mail address or e-mail me at kate@coordinatedkate.com

NECESSARY Monthly Billing Binder!

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When I first started saving all of my monthly bills and statements, I saved at least $100 within the first two months. You don’t realize where you can cut down or where you’re being overcharged until you actually look at your bills every month on a consistent basis.

And this is by far the easiest suggestion that I’ll probably make throughout this entire blog. All you need to do is keep your bills and this binder is going to help you keep them organized and could potentially save you some money!

 I use a 1″ binder that I got from Target for about $2.79, but sometimes they have really good deals (especially around August for the back-to-school sales) for their Up & Up brand of school/office supplies and you can get two 1″ binders for like $3. I also picked up some sheet protectors and binder dividers from Staples for really cheap (and right now they have 1″ binders that are really inexpensive). Target is my go-to place for supplies but Staples has really great deals sometimes that I just can’t ignore!

Just divide your binder into sections according to the different bills that you acquire during the month, for example: Verizon Wireless, Fios, Electric, VISA Statement, etc. Then decide how you’d like to organize each section. For instance, I like to put the newer bills in the back of each section, just because it’s easier.

Once the bills come in the mail or are available to print out online, put them in the binder and compare it to the last months bill. Look at all the details and make sure you weren’t overcharged. When I first started this I was seeing some crazy things on my Verizon Fios bill for some crazy internet security bundle that I didn’t need and didn’t ask for. I called and they took it off and reimbursed me for the past three months and got me $20 off my next bill. I also was looking at my Verizon Wireless bill and found out that I was paying for insurance on a phone that was no longer on my account!

It’s really simple. All you need to do is save your bills and pay attention. I use one binder for all my bills and I keep them for an entire year. When the year is over, I throw them out, or burn them – haha, just kidding!

 This is a great project to pair with the ESSENTIAL Monthly Planner project. In a couple days I’m going to show you how I do my financial spreadsheets that are super easy and I promise, if you follow all of the steps, you’ll be the most financially organized person around! Stay tuned!