Find ways to save next year. Use your year-end financial organization time to identify sources that are draining your money. For instance, if you’re paying for cable TV but never watch it, think about cancelling it altogether.Overall, you should be spending about 35% of your income on home expenses (rent, utilities, and groceries), 15% on transportation expenses (car insurance, train fare, and auto repairs), 25% on entertainment and other miscellaneous expenses, 15% on paying off debt, and putting the final 10% of your income toward savings.
If you live in an expensive area or have a low income, you might need to contribute more money to home expenses and less toward debt or miscellaneous expenditures.
 When you’re done organizing your current year’s financial data and documentation, look for ways to streamline the process next year. For instance, you can cut back on time spent searching for wayward documents by using automatic bill payments. You might also use debiting by tying regular payments like utilities and credit card charges directly to your bank account.Cut back on the number of credit cards you use regularly. This will reduce the number of credit card bills you need to juggle. Use the credit card with the lowest interest rate as your day-to-day credit card, and use the other cards once a month in order to prevent their disuse from hurting your credit score.
For the same reason, limit your bank accounts.You should have one checking account and one savings account. If you have multiple checking and savings accounts, close the one with the most fees and least generous terms of service.
Consolidate your retirement accounts and investments, too. If you have several IRAs, transfer all the money into a single IRA. Use one brokerage firm to simplify investments.
 This will prevent confusion when trying to organize everything at year’s end.Use a three-ring binder with pockets to organize your financial materials in an orderly way. Move non-current financial records to your filing cabinet.
If you feel more comfortable printing out digital documents, print them out and put them in your vertical file or binder.
If you don’t print out digital receipts and other documents, ensure that you put them in the appropriate folder according to your predesignated system as you receive them. For instance, when you get your digital W-2, immediately download it and put it with your other tax documents.
If you need to copy certain digital documents to make them accessible in multiple locations, don’t be afraid to do so.
Set a budget.
Simplify payments and financial data for next year.
Keep your finances organized throughout the year.Instead of putting all your receipts, account statements, and other financial documents in a stack and watching them slowly pile up over the course of a year, put them in the appropriate file or folder as you receive them.
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