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Show 1 16 SPRINGVILLE HERALD Thursday, February 23, 2006 Organize your finances and get ready for spring Spring cleaning should o beyond the mops and rooms. Arm yourself with folders, labels, and gather your bank statements. state-ments. Mike Sullivan, director of education for Take Charge America, a nonprofit non-profit credit counseling company, says organizing your finances can help you save money and get out of debt. "When you don't track your charges or pay your Sills on time, you run the risk of falling deeper into debt," Sullivan said. "You can avoid overdue charges arid other fees, and potentially save hundreds hun-dreds or even thousands of dollars, by getting organized." The average American has between five and 10 credit cards, which also means the average American Ameri-can has between five and 10 credit card statements flooding their mailbox. Add that to seemingly countless credit card offers and it is easy to see how finances can get jumbled as Americans lead their hectic lives. Proof of the financial chaos that many Americans Ameri-cans experience is found in a report by Lindquist Consulting. It states household debt soared nearly 32 percent to record levels with more than 2 million people filing for bankruptcy last year. Sullivan has suggestions for getting your finances back on track, so you don't become one of the million-plus consumers who will file for bankruptcy bankrupt-cy in 2006: Ditch the Shoebox Method - Tossing all of your receipts, records and bills into a bottomless pit increases the chance you'll pass them over or forget to pay them. Use files or stackable drawers and . label each creditor. This will decrease de-crease the chance you'll forget to send in rebates and credit card rewards. Moreover, file all of your tax -related information in-formation separately. You don't want to be scrambling scram-bling for a year's worth of documents minutes before filing your own taxes or visiting an accountant. Create a Monthly Budget Bud-get - Know what you are spending and where you are spending it. You may recognize small purchases that add up overtime, such as fast food and coffee breaks. Reducing those purchases can help you save money, which can be used to pay off credit card debt or other bills. You can do this by keeping a record of each expenditure expendi-ture for one month. Set Up a Bill-Paying System - Set aside a specific spe-cific day each month that is solely for bill paying. If you mail your bills, schedule sched-ule this time at least five days prior to your due dates. This ensures you won't miss your due date and accumulate late fees. You could also consider con-sider setting up online bill paying. This can help you save time, money and postage. However, before you sign up, check to see if your bank charges additional addi-tional fees for this service and compare those fees to the costs of postage, as well as other costs of traditional tra-ditional payment. Read Your Bills - Don't blindly pay the total amount due on your bills. Scan the documents for mistakes and fraud. Call customer service if you have questions. Shred Old Records -You can organize the clutter clut-ter by throwing away documents doc-uments that aren't needed anymore. ATM or credit card receipts can be thrown out if they match your monthly statement and if they are not needed for tax purposes. Paycheck Pay-check stubs aren't needed once you get your annual W-2. Furthermore, tax returns re-turns older than seven years can be thrown out (just check with your accountant ac-countant first). You should also shred old credit cred-it card and loan offers. 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