Women and time

In the April edition of Real Simple magazine was a long feature called "Women & Time" in which they detailed the results of a survey they performed to figure out how today's women spend their time. Here are some of the more interesting findings:

• 52% of women have less than 90 minutes of free time a day
• 29% have less than 45 minutes a day

• Cleaning is the chore that women would most like to eliminate from their to-do lists, followed by laundry.
• Keeping an organized house can make cleaning less of a time suck
• It's possible to streamline laundry, as I noted last week

• The top 3 jobs women don't want to hand of to their spouse are decorating, managing household finances and organizing. 
• I'd like to think that's because organizing is so fun!

Financial organization: credit reports

I’m a fan of Suze Orman. I think she gives smart financial advice that sticks to the basics and to common sense. She’s always insisting that you know your credit score and you check your credit reports. Being organized financially means you are aware of your financial situation. Even if you feel you have a clear picture of your finances, keeping tabs on your credit report is a simple and smart thing to do.

A credit report isn’t a credit score. A credit score costs money to obtain and gives you a number that credit agencies use when determining your borrowing rate. You can get a credit report once a year for free from each of the three credit agencies. It basically shows you what lines of credit you have open and in what standing they are. To obtain the report nearly instantaneously online, you provide your social security number, address and must answer a few multiple choice questions about your financial history. Once you have it, it is short work to make sure that all of the items reported were in fact opened by you and you know what they all are. Sometime there are errors, and that is where it really pays to do this. You can fix the errors, but it takes time. If you are trying to get a credit card or a loan, those errors my harm the rate you will be able to get, so don’t wait until the last minute.

Here's more information on credit reports from Suze Orman.

 

Reminder, I am not in any way a professional financial planner or advice-giver!

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Clutter-free gifts: Financial and charitable

We've made it to the final category in the clutter-free gifts series. Money has not always been considered an appropriate gift at the holidays, but money can buy lots of useful things. Charitable giving, however, has been associated with the holidays as we use it as a time to help people in need. If you want to give a gift of money to your friend or relative, but don't necessarily want to hand them an envelope of cash, here are some ideas. If you want the money to go to a good cause, you can find ways to make that reflect on both you, the giver, as well as the person in whose honor will be making the donation.

• Contribute to an established savings account/college fund/CD for a child.
• Buy blue chip stocks for a child under a custodial account. You can buy a few at each holiday and birthday, and their pool will add up over time. They may not appreciate it until they are older, but you could use the gift as a teaching tool about investments.
• Buy a gift card that works like cash, such as American Express. 
• Charitable donation in name of receiver for a charity they are interested in—just ask where they'd like the money to go, rather than guessing!
• Allow the receiver to choose the charities of their choice by giving a Good Card. It's like a gift card for donations. (Via Jeri Dansky)
• Volunteer your time at a favorite charitable organization of the receiver, such as a retirement home, homeless shelter or food bank.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Photos8.com
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com