10 ways to simplify your financial life

A schedule for success

Set up a high-yield savings account. Saving for retirement and paying off credit card debt need to be the first and second priorities for most folks. Once you're on track there, though, you should consider building up an emergency fund, and today's high-rate online savings accounts can help you accomplish that. Accounts offered by ING Direct, Emigrant Direct and HSBC Direct, among others, are FDIC-insured and offer attractive rates. They typically link directly to your checking account at your brick-and-mortar bank. Set up automatic transfers so you don't have to think about saving -- you just do it.

Create alerts. Banks, brokerages and credit card companies will send you e-mails to alert you to all kinds of events: when your checking account drops below a certain level, for example, or when your credit card payment is due. Get online access to your accounts and explore the possibilities.

Move your due dates. If you have too many bills falling due at the same time, see if you can shift some to another time of the month. Many credit card companies, for example, will allow you to pick your own due dates.

Create a bill calendar. Even if you have e-mail alerts, you still should have all of your bills' due dates mapped out on a calendar. This can be a calendar on the wall, on your desktop or on your phone. The only requirement is that it be a calendar you look at daily. You're responsible for paying your bills even if you don't receive a statement, and this calendar can help make sure you don't wind up paying unnecessary late fees or inadvertently ruining your credit. (A single skipped payment on a credit account can knock nearly 100 points off your credit scores.)

Pick the no-brainer options. If you really love picking individual stocks or researching the heck out of your mutual fund choices, be my guest. If you want an easier route, though, seek out funds that do the heavy lifting for you. "Life cycle" and "target date maturity" funds not only choose the investments but re-balance them regularly so you don't have to mess with figuring out how much of your 401(k) to put in stocks and how much in bonds.

Don't procrastinate -- aggregate

Monitor your money. People who wait for their statements to arrive in the mail typically catch fraud later than those who monitor their accounts online, according to Javelin Research & Strategy, an online research firm. Real-time access to your accounts can help you prevent overdrafts and over-limit fees, too. You can try bouncing from site to site to check all your accounts, but you have better options.

Your bank may offer account aggregation, which allows you to view accounts held at other institutions. If you're comfortable having your transactions aggregated online, you can use sites such as Wesabe, Mint and Yodlee.

Personally, I prefer personal-finance software programs like Microsoft Money and Quicken. These programs, which live on your computer rather than online, allow you to automatically download transactions and keep track of your finances while providing some powerful financial-planning software. Recent updates have vastly improved cash-flow-forecast features, which can show you in advance when your checking account is about to run on fumes. (Microsoft is the publisher of MSN Money.)

Each of these 10 options requires some upfront effort on your part, but after your systems are in place you'll be able to stay on top of your money in just a few minutes a week. If that isn't a worthwhile goal, I don't know what is.

Liz Pulliam Weston is the Web's most-read personal-finance writer. She is the author of several books, most recently "Your Credit Score: Your Money & What's at Stake." Weston's award-winning columns appear every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. She also answers reader questions on the Your Money message board.

Updated April 8, 2009

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