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GETTING OUR FINANCES IN ORDER
Excerpted from Family Finances: Making And Managing Money
It's that time again. Tax season!
As you pull all your financial records
together to file your taxes (or your
extension forms), maybe you're happy with
yourself because you did a great job at
managing your money last year. Or maybe
you're regretting that you didn't keep better
records of where all that money went.
Whatever your financial state is right now,
God wants to prosper you as your soul
prospers (3 John 2). That means He wants to
give you wisdom.
Any enterprise is built by wise planning,
becomes strong through common sense, and
profits wonderfully by keeping abreast of the
facts.
Proverbs 24:3-4 TLB
Destruction comes from a lack of knowledge,
and where there is no plan, we will surely
perish (Hosea 4:6). Successful money
management involves knowing where we're
starting from, knowing where we're going to
end up, and having a system in place to
monitor our progress along the way. To do
that, we're going to have to keep some good
records.
Be thou diligent to know the state of thy
flocks, and look well to thy herds. Proverbs
27:23
To see increase in our lives, we're going to
have to take some time to get our stuff
together. Tax season is a great time to do
this since we already have most of our
financial papers together in one place.
We need to get a cardboard box and collect up
every bill, every contract, every policy,
every check stub, every bank and credit card
statement--it doesn't matter if it's two years
old, ten years old, or from last month. Once
we get all our financial papers together,
then we can begin to separate everything.
Now don't panic! We don't have to finish
this by April 15th. We can take a weekend, a
week, a month, or two months, but we have to
begin the process. If we want God to
increase us financially, then we're going to
have to become good stewards and create some
order for what we already have.
Next, we need to get a file box or cabinet,
ten hanging folders, and a box of regular
file folders to put inside them. We'll start
by putting labels on the ten hanging folders.
- Checking And Savings Accounts--This is
where we keep our monthly bank statements and
cancelled checks. We should use separate
file folders inside the hanging folder if we
have different accounts.
- Home-Related Accounts--Within this
hanging
folder, in separate files, we should put the
title to our house, home improvement
receipts, mortgage payment receipts and paid
utility bills. (Renters should keep copies
of their leases and receipts for deposits and
rent payments here.)
- Credit Cards/Loans And Other
Debt--We need
to create separate files for each credit card
we have and keep all the bills, payment
receipts and card agreements inside. We also
need to keep records of loans or debts other
than our mortgage in separate files in here.
Each file should have the loan agreement and
payment records in it.
- Insurance--We should make a separate
file
for each of our policies (i.e., life, health,
disability, homeowner's or renter's, etc.).
The policies, notifications, and the related
payment records need to go in the appropriate
files.
- Taxes--Since the law allows the IRS
to go
back seven years for an audit, we need to
make eight file folders--one for each of the
past seven years, plus this year. In each of
the files, we should put all our W-2 forms,
1099s, tithing and giving records, other tax
records and a copy of that year's returns.
- Social Security Documents/Retirement
Accounts--Our most recent Benefits Statements
go in one file inside this hanging folder.
Then we should make files for every
retirement account we have, including IRAs,
401(k)s, 403(b)s, etc., and keep our
quarterly statements inside.
- Investments--Papers with the
amounts we
originally paid for any investments, such as
stocks or
mutual funds, and the dates we bought or
received them, as well as any dividend
statements, go in here filed by date. If any
of the investments were inherited, we need to
keep a record of their value on the date we
got them in this file. That way if we want
to sell them in the future, we'll have the
information we need to determine what our tax
consequences will be. We also need to keep a
paper in this file with the location of where
all these investments are kept.
- Estate And Legal Documents--This
hanging
folder should have a copy of our most recent
wills or trusts, medical directives, and
power of attorney papers, along with the
name, address and phone number of the
attorney who set them up.
- Children's Accounts--College savings
plan
papers, college loans, tuition records,
and/or other investments or debts for the
kids should go in this hanging folder in
separate files.
- Financial Worksheets--A copy of our
family's financial goals and a prayer list,
as well as a worksheet of our net worth, a
copy of our current spending plan, and our
other financial worksheets should be included
in this file. (Click this link Downloads
From Joe McGee Ministries where you'll find a few simple
worksheets to help you get started.)
If we'll take the natural steps
to become better stewards of what God has
given us, we'll begin to see increase come
our way. Armed with the truth, we'll be able
to see where we are now financially and what
steps we need to take to fulfill what God has
for us in the future.
God bless,
Joe McGee
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