There are a lot of things I like about January, like the end of a hectic holiday season and that small window of peace and quiet as everyone recovers.  I guess it’s that perfect combination that always motivates me to declutter and reorganize LIFE after the craziness settles…holiday decor, old clothes, the attic (yuck, I did that one this year), and all the kids’ toys that explode in our house!

If I’m being perfectly honest, when things get so out of hand that clean laundry has spilled off the guest bed or dishes are being washed just in time to be used again…I’m paralyzed. It’s a very different level of intimidation preventing me from taking any action at all versus when there’s only a basket of towels to be put away or a few kiddie cups and coffee mugs chilling in the sink.

Am I alone in this?  Is there anyone out there who instead thinks of a pile of laundry as “motivation?”  If so, I need that magic potion you’re sipping on.

The same is very much true for our finances.  In a recent post here, I shared about how I blinked and life had spun 180 on me in what seemed like minutes….marriage, kids, job change…the whole 9 yards. At that time, we were paralyzed by our balance sheet…or really lack there-of.  I almost just didn’t even want to look at it.  I knew that if I did, I would be disappointed. 😣

But there was something in Jan of 2018 pushing me to finally get our entire household and our finances organized.  Something told me that I would be able to actually do it for real this time.  I was in the middle of testing out the technology that I wanted to power Simplifynance, and my gut was telling me THIS WAS IT!  I wasn’t paralyzed anymore.  I had my potion! 😊

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So my husband and I got to work.  We’d chip it off a little at a time, linking all of our accounts together online, figuring out what our million of passwords were for the different accounts, and dedicating time on the couch over a glass of wine to get closer to being organized.

Did it happen overnight? NO…of course not!  Was it what you would really describe as fun?  Probably not.  I can think of a million other things that are WAY more fun.  Laundry isn’t one of them though….

It took dedication, patience, and holding on to a belief that this would help us in the end.  In the process, we got locked out of a few online accounts, missed a few shows we normally watch after the kids go down, and talked way more about our dollars than my husband cared to. Shout out to that good man for that!

But we made it.  All of our dollars were in one nice big picture, creating a consolidated message for us about where we were as a family, a message that we wouldn’t have heard otherwise if everything was still floating around in the innerweb space independent of one another.  

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I cannot emphasize enough what our dedication to getting organized has done for us!  At the time, I never would have imagined what an impact just being organized would have on our daily spending decisions, like cooking in versus eating out.  Or, choosing to wait on hitting the “buy with 1 click” button shopping online.  And those decisions we were making really weren’t conscious ones that made us feel bad.  In fact, it was quite the opposite! It came naturally and felt AWESOME to make better spending decisions.  What blew me away the most is THIS IS THE FIRST NEW YEARS RESOLUTION I ACTUALLY STUCK TO….EVER EVER EVER!

Who out there actually sees those things through to the end?!  THIS GAL RIGHT HERE!  What What!

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If anything, let this serve as living proof of 2 things:

1.    If I can stick to a New Years resolution, so can you.  What’s your 2019 goal going to be?

2.    If getting organized is important to you, it’s totally possible. It’s just up to you (and maybe your spouse too) to take action, maintain belief, and stay dedicated.

If you want to test the waters in getting organized financially, start with seeing if you can get a mini-organizer filled out.  If that’s a breeze, you can get the full version by setting up a call with me or another Simplifynance advisor.  You can reach me here.

And when you come to learn that getting organized isn’t as paralyzing as you thought it would be, take the next step and use some pretty cool technology to put your organization on auto-pilot.  You can check out the technology we use here.

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Now excuse me…I have some laundry to do.

Written by: Rachel Stewart, Financial Advisor