The Importance of Getting Organized

I spent the greater part of five hours getting organized.

Just as with any business project that I'm engaged, I had to gather data in order to create the As Is picture of my finances.

How do you make gathering data easy? First and foremost, getting organized is key.

By that I mean, going through old paperwork and throwing stuff away, creating files and folders for all of your open accounts, creating archived files for all of your old accounts - especially if you want to ever look at trends - and generally creating a personal finance environment where paperwork, accounts, etc., is readily available.