I’ve come up with an easy strategy to take the pain out of doing our taxes. We have lots of accounts, but doing our taxes is actually relatively easy based on some simple organization techniques.
Replacing all the forms and data with one list makes the process quick and easy. Here’s how I organize our tax work from [...]

Posted January 17, 2008 in Organization, Taxes | No Comments »

This is the second post in an ongoing series about about how I organize my finances with lots of accounts; read the first one about bill pay and filing for 181 accounts.
A reader left the following comment in the credit card debate:
I don’t have enough time in the morning to check 89 credit card accounts!  I don’t even want to think of [...]

Posted January 16, 2008 in Credit cards, Debt, Intermediate, Organization | 11 Comments »

I had my husband call American Express yesterday to get the $689.72 finance charge straightened out on his IN: CHICAGO American Express card. He actually tried to call on Wednesday, but the hold time was over 10 minutes. He waited for a few, then handed me the phone to hold when the doorbell rang. Somehow in [...]

Posted December 28, 2007 in Credit cards, Debt, Organization | 6 Comments »

How exactly do I stay organized with 89 credit accounts, 31 bank accounts, 29 investment accounts and 32 other accounts (not including 14 accounts for the kids and numerous accounts for family members)?
That’s what readers wanted to know when I started to describe some of the details of our accounts. I’ll highlight my various strategies [...]

Posted December 27, 2007 in Advanced, Credit cards, Investing, Organization | 18 Comments »

We recently set up a special needs trust for for a family member. It is an important part of planning for the future of a disabled individual and has large consequences if done incorrectly.
Special Needs Trust
Special needs trusts, or supplemental needs trusts, provide the means to care for a disabled child (or adult) after the parents or [...]

Posted December 5, 2007 in Insurance, Intermediate, Investing, Organization | 4 Comments »