The 5-Minute Morning Routine to Organize Your Finances
Keeping your finances organized is an important part of building wealth, and it doesn’t have to take much time.
Taking a quick five minutes to check in on your finances while you eat breakfast or commute to work could help you feel more in control of your money. While you’ll want to tweak your routine to fit your specific needs, here’s a five-step starting point. Each step shouldn’t take more than a minute.
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1. Check whether you got paid
Start by making sure you received all the income you’re expecting. The most obvious is your paycheck, and you don’t have to do this particular task every day if you work a job that comes with a regular payday. However, self-employed workers with multiple clients should monitor their balances more frequently.
If you’re expecting another type of income, like Social Security, it’s important to check your accounts on the day you’re expecting it. You can even take this minute to see if the friend who owes you money for a dinner out has paid you back yet.
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2. Look forward to due dates
The second minute of the five-minute morning routine involves looking at your calendar and seeing if you have any upcoming bill payments. Prioritize bills that are within the next few days.
This may involve moving some money around. For instance, if you have a credit card payment scheduled in three days but you don’t have enough money in your checking account to cover it, transfer some money from your savings.
3. Review a goal
While you should regularly be checking in on your financial goals, limiting that to one goal a day can help relieve some of the stress that can come with saving for all your milestones.
Maybe you have a vacation coming up in a few months that you want to save a set amount of money for, or you’re planning to buy a car. Review how much you've saved and how much you're saving regularly for the goal, and assess how you can make any changes if need be.
4. Commit to one task
When it comes to bettering your financial life, even the smallest moves can make a big difference. Take the fourth minute in your routine to identify one task that will improve your finances. You don’t have to do this task right now, but you should make some time for it later in the day.
Some examples are sending an email to your financial advisor, filing an insurance claim, unsubscribing from a streaming service or increasing your 401(k) contribution amount.
5. Digitally declutter
The last minute is for a brief digital declutter, which can include deleting unnecessary files, emails, accounts and more that are taking up brain space, as well as space on your devices.
Unsubscribing to even one newsletter that tempts you to spend money but that no longer offers you value could make the difference between making an impulse purchase and not.