Home Sweet Home Office

A home office is a place that you pay bills, file your papers and surf the net on your computer. It is also a great place to make plans. I am speaking primarily about financial planning.

Today the stock market had a huge correction of over 500 points. You notice that I said “correction”. Anyone involved in the stock market for any length of time has seen this phenomenon before. Personally I hope that I have learned from past mistakes. My stocks are diversified so I will just ride this rollercoaster to the end.

What does this have to do with planning in your home office? It has everything to do with mine. Financial well being has alot to do with the stock market. If you have a 401K, an IRA, a Roth IRA, an annuity (the list is too long to include) you are invested in the stock market.

Your pay stub is a snap shot of your income year to date. Do you study your pay stubs? Do you keep them? What about your investment statements? Do you study your past tax returns? I know that this is not exciting stuff – but it is important stuff.

Hopefully you have organized your home office to make your financial papers easily to access. Take the time once a month to review how healthy your finances are. Look for patterns. If you see a negative slide, figure how you can turn it around. If there is an upward trend figure out what you are doing right.

I hear people say “I need to find a part time job”. Actually, I have been there myself. My experience was:

• Increased day care
• Extra gas burned
• Increased food costs – always in a hurry and ate out more often
• Increased family stress

You may be surprised how much money you can save by heading off disaster before it arrives. A great place to start is to pay bills in such a way as to save interest charges and late fees.

Your home office is a perfect place to plan your next financial move.