Financial Records - Get Organized Now!

Second to getting your Money Mindset in order, organizing your financial records has got to be a top priority.

When's the last time you balanced your check book? If someone asked you for your latest bank statement, paycheck stub or credit card bill, could you find it? Do you keep your mortgage statements if you have one?

What about tax returns, insurance policies, living trusts, mutual fund and money market accounts? The list goes on. Could you immediately put your hands on any of these things, if you needed to?

No successful investor can afford to be caught searching for any of these things when asked. You will soon find out that time is money. Every precious minute you spend looking for a document or statement is time you could be spending researching or closing your next deal.

You don't want to cringe every time you have to apply for a loan, or find a document for your tax strategist. And at tax time, the more organized you are, the more tax write offs you will have.

Also, all investors have current, up-to-date profit and loss statements that they analyze on a frequent basis to track their progress and their goals. How can you have a tight p & l if you don't even know what your current bank or mortgage balance on your rental property is?

OK, so the lecture is over. Now it's time for action! Go buy a box of manila file folders, pendaflex folders, some two or four drawer filing cabinets, one or two filing storage boxes, and a fire proof safe. Now prepare to dive in and organize your financial records. In your new filing cabinets you will label your file folders with the following categories:

- Bank Statements

- Credit Card Statements

- Credit Line Statements

- Expenses**

- Auto Insurance

- Homeowners Insurance**

- Life Insurance

- IRA's or Money Market Accounts

- Living Trust

- Premaritial Agreements

- Mortgage Statements

- Current Year Tax Relevant documents

- Home Warranties

- Other relevant categories

**One for each property you own

Put the file folders in the pendaflex folders and put the pendaflex folders in the filing cabinet. Take the file storage boxes and label them TAXES, and write what years you are putting into that box (I can usually get many years in one box). Put this box in your fire proof safe, along with your living trust, birth certificates, social security cards, and passports, etc.