A famous Zen proverb says, “The way a man does one thing is how he does everything.” Do you have dishes piled up in your kitchen sink? Do you constantly lose your car keys? You might find yourself having trouble with your personal finances as well as your bad habits and lack of organization bleeds over into your finances. I personally struggle with keeping my home office clean, and it leaks over into my record keeping. I have paper piled up everywhere. But, there is hope!
“One Year To An Organized Financial Life“ by Regina Leeds is a good read and reference book that will keep you flipping pages every week to accomplish both financial and organizational tasks throughout the year. I would recommend Regina’s book to anyone looking to better organize their lives and their finances, start off on the right foot, or reclaim the balance in their lives that they have been missing. The book would be especially helpful and is geared towards people who are just starting out managing their personal finances whether young or old. However, there are some great basic and timeless tips in the book that can benefit investors and money mavens of every level of sophistication and skill.
The book is broken down into several sections, one for each month in fact. While you can start reading the book at any time of the year and in any order, the book’s chapters each represent a month on the calendar and are then further broken out by that month’s weeks. So, for example, April looks like…
Chapter 4. April – Spend Less, Save More
Week One: Reduce Your Expenses
Week Two: Harness Your Marketability
Week Three: Working With Your Budget
Week Four: Banking Made Brighter
Other topics covered throughout the months and the book include: taking control of your money, accessing your finances, building a nest egg, getting ready for taxes, borrowing smartly, long range planning, children and money, and many other great money topics. It is a week by week guide to finding the financial piece of mind that you deserve.
Who Would Benefit? A lot of different people would benefit from reading this book. While it is not in-depth financial strategies like stock picking, options, and the like, it does cover a wide range of personal finance topics like writing a will, using credit cards wisely, refinancing your mortgage, saving for college expenses, teaching your children about money, and a host of other topics. This book is definitely geared towards and would benefit the beginner or the person just starting to get their finances under control. This book would be an excellent read for a recent high school or college graduate. The book builds on a slow and methodical way to bring your finances under control and lays out certain tasks or goals that you have to accomplish each week.
A Great Tip. One tip that I really like from this book is about creating good habits whether they are money or personal habits throughout our lives. It takes twenty-one consecutive days of repeating an action before it becomes a habit. If you begin working on two habits every month, then you will have changed the way you feel about your ability to get organized and manage your finances. Some of the author’s favorite habits are make your bed every day, putting your keys in the same place the minute you enter your home, wash dirty dishes immediately and put them away, etc. All of Regina Leed’s books are full of habit suggestions. And, she has several books including “One Year To An Organized Life” and “One Year To An Organized Work Life“.
Regina Leeds uses a Zen philosophy to bring clarity, simplicity, and order to your personal finances. Organization and money go hand in hand. It affects us in our everyday lives as well as our work environment. Our lives will be more organized and efficient if we follow Regina’s tips, and our money will surely follow our lead.
The Piggy Bank Rating – This book is definitely four piggy banks out of five. You should definitely read it and pass it on to a friend. See the complete guide to the site’s piggy bank rating scale.
