Spring cleaning your finances

It’s springtime. After months of gray skies, the sun is peering through the clouds and the flowers are blooming. Spring is the best time to get re-energized about your money goals and take big steps to achieve them.

There’s a reason why spring cleaning is something that your grandmother and mother practiced religiously every year. The season is the perfect time to let go of the old and make space for the new. When it comes to money, this is the time re-evaluate what is working and release patterns that no longer serve you in order to invite abundance.

Ready to do some major spring cleaning on your finances? Here are 10 steps to take.

1. Clean out your closet. Nothing says you are ready for an upgrade in your life than getting rid of clothes. Go through your closet and pack up the articles that no longer fit or just don’t inspire you. You can donate them or, with the gently used items, send them off to thredUP so you can get paid!

2. Review your money goals for 2018. Take a look at the goals you set back on New Year’s Day and reflect on your progress. Is there anything that needs to change or be updated? If you realize that some goals may have been overly ambitious - that is ok!  Life happens. Now you can adjust them to something that is more attainable. Otherwise, keep going for that big, bold, audacious goals.

3. Set goals for this quarter. If you are a blogger and business owner, how many pieces of content do you want to create? How many brands do you want to work with and how many clients do you want to sign up? When you write down your goals, don’t forget to include your savings and investing accounts totals. How about increasing them by 25% this quarter? You can do it!

4. Review your bank accounts. Check the fees you’re paying on your various accounts and if you are maximizing your earning potential. One account that most people overlook is their checkings account. Many banks charge a fee to hold an account or do not offer an opportunity to earn interest. With a Radius Bank’s hybrid checkings account, you can earn 0.85% APY* on your balance. It’s an incredible product and an easy way for you to make money on that money. Get it, girl!

5. Tidy up your bookkeeping. Like a clean closet for your clothes, your bookkeeping is the closet for your money. And nothing says you care more about your money than a fresh set of books. Whether you use Excel, pen & paper, or a digital bookkeeping program (we highly recommend going with an app!), make sure everything is up to date and in order.

6. Re-evaluate your life. This may seem a little dramatic, but we all have a little drama queen in us. And it’s necessary. Take note of how you are spending your time, who you are spending it with and if it is in alignment with the vision you have for this season of your life. It may be time to let some people go or remove activities that are not getting you to where you want to be, financially.

7. Calculate your net-worth. Your net-worth is your assets minus liabilities. We talk a lot about this at Money & Mimosas because it is the true indicator of your personal wealth. Compare it to your net worth from three months ago, and set a goal for this quarter.

8. Review your business and make adjustments. Are you happy with all of the services you provide? Is it time to let go of clients or proactively seek out new ones? Listen to your intuition and make the changes you need to make.

9. Clear your money energy. As Erykah Badu says, you gonna hurt your back carrying all them bags. Many of us are holding on to resentment and anger against ourselves for past money mistakes. Practice some self-forgiveness and self-compassion exercises to let that ish go.

10. Refresh your money mindset. After you’ve cleared the air, now you can dream. Take 10-15 minutes to imagine the grandest life possible for yourself. Who are you hanging out with? What are you wearing? What are the sights and sounds you are experiencing? The types of food you are eating? Hold on to that vision of yourself and operate from it during this beautiful spring season.

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This post was in partnership with Radius Bank.

*Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is accurate as of 04/18/2018. Minimum amount to open account is $10.00. Rate tiers are as follows: 0.00% APY applies to balances of $0.01-$2,499.99, and 0.85% APY applies to the entire balance on balances of $2,500 or more. Rates may change after account is opened. Fees may reduce earnings.

Hiring an accountant? Here are 15 interview questions to help you choose the right person!

Hiring an accountant is an awesome moment in any BOSS's journey. It means that you're making money, and enough of it to warrant asking for guidance on how to make the best use of it.

I know that hiring an accountant can seem intimidating, especially if you don't know what questions to ask. The important thing to remember is that it's just like hiring a Virtual Assistant or Social Media Manager or someone to handle your PR, you want to hire an accountant that understands your business and vision. And someone that you get along with!

Most accountants are good at their job, but most of them will not be a good fit for your business. To help you figure all that out, here are 15 questions you should ask before choosing the right person for you.

Fifteen Interview Questions Before You Hire Your Accountant

1. What experience do you have with my industry?

2. Could you help me figure out how to grow my company and give advice when I'm looking to hire or expand?

3. Do you file taxes? If not, do you have a recommendation?

4. How often do you meet with your current clients?

5. How often may I contact you? Will I be charged each time?

6. How do you charge your clients? Is it a flat fee, retainer or hourly?

7. Which accounting tools are you familiar with?

8. Is there a bookkeeping program that you prefer? Why do you prefer it?

9. What are some of the latest trends in my industry and how will they help me in my business? (i.e. If you’re a health coach, what are some changes within the way coaches are doing business that may help improve your business?)

10. How do you prefer to communicate with your clients? Is it via text, email, social media?

11. Do you have a staff member, or someone other than you, who will be accessing my file?

12. How much work do you need me to do to make our relationship as effective as possible?

13. Do you have any previous or current clients that I could reach out to?

14. What’s your #1 tip to me about how I can improve my business?

15. Why did you fall in love with accounting and working with small business owners?

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What to do when you fall behind in your bookkeeping

We’ve all been there. When we’ve gone weeks, maybe months, without organizing our bank transactions and receipts. It can be overwhelming to think of the backlog that needs to get taken care of.

I wish I could say that there was a quick fix to this situation, but there isn’t. If you’ve fallen behind in your bookkeeping and want it cleaned up correctly, you will have to put some time and effort into it.

Why is having up-to date books important? Usually the first thing we think about is taxes, which is important. The cleaner your bookkeeping is, the easier and more accurate your tax filing will be.

But, we also want to keep track of how much we’ve invested in our business and if we’re actually making a profit. Too often I speak to entrepreneurs who are super excited about breaking through six-figures, but then have no idea how much they’ve actually spent on their business. Remember…

It’s not what you make, it’s what you keep if you want to run a successful business. 

This page will walk you through the exact steps you need to take in order to get your bookkeeping up to date. If you’ve already started using a bookkeeping program, begin with Step #5.

1. Choose a bookkeeping program. Some of my favorite programs are Xero, Quickbooks, Kashoo and Freshbooks.

2. Set up the program. Follow the program’s instructions on how to get set up. The key step is to link your related bank and credit cards.

3. Make sure all of your transactions are included. Depending on the program you choose, when you link your bank info, it may allow you to backdate to the first day of your business transactions. If not, you will need to obtain the CSV file from your bank and upload the transactions manually.

4. Set up your chart of accounts. These are your categories (aka “buckets”) where you’ll place different transactions.

5. Reconcile your transactions. Depending on how many transactions you have in the backlog, I would start with the oldest and work forward. Why? Because the further away the date is, the harder it will be to remember it.

6. Divide the transactions into week-long chunks. Do not try to reconcile them all in one sitting. For example, if you are three months or 12 weeks behind, plan to complete everything over the course of 4-8 weeks. Each week you’ll reconcile 1 or 2 week’s worth of old transactions.

7. Reconcile the old transactions with the ongoing transactions. As you're catching up on older transactions, you are also doing the bookkeeping for the present. In this case, if you have 12 weeks to catch up on and do 2 weeks of old transactions and the current week (a total of 3 weeks), within a month and a half you’ll be all caught up!

It’s okay if you’ve fallen behind in your bookkeeping. The past is the past. Now, it’s time to take action, get caught up and establish habits so that it never happens again.

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Budgeting against your goals throughout the year

This post was in partnership with Wells Fargo. Originally posted on Wells Fargo Works.

One of the more challenging aspects of running a company is determining how to best allocate the company’s revenue according to a budget. Oftentimes, a company will begin the year with one idea and, midway through, realize that they want to take a different direction. This can lead to uncertainty about how to best manage cash flow and how to adjust projections. 

The key with business budgeting is to always remember that a budget is a fluid document. It’s merely a guide for you to use to determine your next best move, and it is OK to adjust it throughout the year. 

Estimate your annual budget

When you’re creating your annual budget projection, you may want to consider applying the 60/20/20 rule. Generally speaking: 

• 60% of revenue should be used for fixed expenses. This includes salaries, overhead expenses, reserves for tax payments, and the company’s profit goals. 

• The first 20% should be dedicated to growth. This may include investing in marketing, advertising, and other initiatives to expand the company’s brand and reach. 

• The second 20% should be designated for internal development. This could include R&D for products-based businesses or training for staff members to improve their skill sets and leadership abilities. 

Create quarterly budget goals

Every 90 days or so, you should aim to check in on your annual budget projection. To help with this, you also need to create four separate quarterly budgets. When planning your quarterly budget, work with your team to decide on the number one objective for each quarter. It could fall under one of three categories:

• Growth: Pushing your business into a growth phase 

• Stability: Remaining stable and consistent 

• Research and Development (R&D): Increasing your service level with an advanced technology investment or internal team training 

RELATED: Need help setting financial goals for your business? Expert Ellen Rohr is here to help.

Adjust based on your needs

Keep in mind that the 60/20/20 rule is a guide. Depending on your quarterly objective, you may need to tweak these percentages. For instance, if you are developing a new product to bring to market, you will likely need to increase the percentage dedicated to internal development, and decrease your funds allocated to growth. 

Once that product has been created and is ready to go to market, you may reduce the amount devoted to R&D from perhaps 30% or 35% back down to 15% or 10% and re-allocate the remaining funds to growth. At this point, you might consider increasing the percentage of revenue dedicated to growth to 30% or 35% in order to pay an outside branding consultancy to help you package and position the product, work with a marketing agency to help you spread the word, and later work with an advertising agency to help you increase sales. 

If you are a service-based business, you may decide to focus on developing your staff at a specific point in the year, which will increase the amount of money that the company is using for internal development. 

The key to business budget planning is flexibility when it comes to your objectives and quarterly budgets. This will help drive your budgeting decisions and keep your business on track. 

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The secret to paying off your debt faster

If you are like the majority of Americans, you have a mound of debt that you are eager to pay off. In fact, the New York Federal Reserve released a report that the total household debt for Americans reached $12.73 trillion in 2017, surpassing the 2008 peak. Yikes!

From student and auto loans to credit cards, the increasing level of debt is a source of anxiety for many. According to the Prosper Marketplace Financial Wellness Survey, 44% of Americans rank debt relief as a top priority for improving their financial standing. Companies like Prosper can help you get your finances back on track by consolidating your debt, so that you can sleep better at night.

Paying off your debt is one of the first steps to achieving financial wellness. And while we all know to spend less than what we earn in order to pay off our debt, it may often feel as if this is easier said than done. As a financial coach, I have worked with hundreds of individuals and have helped them pay off nearly a half million dollars in debt.

One of my clients had over $70,000 in debt that she had been accumulating over the past fifteen years. Within one year of working with each other, she was able to pay it all off. We did this by slightly increasing her earnings and, more importantly, we worked on shifting her mindset. Because when it comes to finances, there is a little known fact that most financial advisors may not have shared with you. In order to experience a shift in your financial situation, you must have a mindset shift, first.

No matter where you are on your financial journey, it is important to remember that having a positive mindset is the key to getting to your next stage of financial wellness. And who better to know the connection of a positive mindset and financial wellness, than Oprah Winfrey.

“The great discovery of all time,” Winfrey once said on her TV show, “is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.”

And sometimes, as Winfrey says, it’s our own mindset that’s blocking the path forward.

When we have debt that continues to haunt us, we become frustrated and often spiral into negative thinking. You may say phrases such as “I am bad with money” or “money doesn’t grow on trees” or “being broke is just the way my life is”. These thoughts turn into beliefs that are sabotaging your ability to pay off debt.

Imagine that you were talking to a young child and trying to teach her how to do long division. The first few times, she may get the answer wrong or take a long time to figure out how to do the problem. Would you yell at her to hurry up? Or tell that she is stupid for not getting the problem right? Of course not! You would gently show her a few mathematical short cuts. And encourage her by saying that she is smart and good at math. Why? Because no one is motivated by shaming or negative talk.

The same holds true for you. In order to pay off your debt, you have to encourage yourself throughout the process. You are not doing yourself any favors by beating yourself up and having negative thoughts. The key is to remain positive and become your own biggest cheerleader.

As you work on paying off your debt, here are five steps you can take to improve your money mindset.

Step #1: Write down all of the money mistakes you have made on a sheet of paper.

Step #2: Grab another sheet of paper and write "I forgive myself for ..." followed by each mistake.

Step #3: Go to a mirror and read the second sheet of paper out loud to yourself. Look yourself in the eye as you say, "I forgive myself for..."

Step #4: And then, tear each sheet of paper into a million pieces. Because the past is over. And now it is time to move on...to a much brighter future.

Step #5: Repeat these steps daily until you pay off your debt.

Now we'd love to hear from you! Is paying off debt one of your financial goals? If so, why is this important to you? Leave us a comment below.

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This post was sponsored by Prosper.

Our Top 5 Favorite Bookkeeping Apps for the Independent Woman

Oh, bookkeeping. The bane of every business owner's existence. 

But, we all know that keeping track of our monies is the secret to leading the carefree, glamour-filled lifestyle. As an independent woman, it is imperative that we know how to manage our books. And not end up in a BBHMM situation like Rihanna did with her CPA firm. More about that, here.

Often times, business owners wait until tax season to start thinking about their books. Leaving you in a frenzy trying to figure out where the receipt is for that random $87 charge way back in the month of the May. 

Do your tax accountant a favor this year and let's burn all of the shoeboxes. Get a jumpstart on organizing your books by using an online program. Not only does this make filing super easy peasy, it also helps you stay on top of your finances throughout the year during your weekly money dates. 

Here is a list of the top five bookkeeping programs that I love for the independent woman.

1. Quickbooks Self-Employed - a fantastic tool for freelancers and independent contractors. Best feature: Love that it automatically calculates your quarterly taxes, and allows you to send invoices on the go. Downside: customizing your invoices is very limited, which we know is important to our creative friends. Cost: Starts at $10/month and goes up to $17/month.

2. Freshbooks- great tool for the self-employed and project-based businesses. Best feature: hands down the best invoice customization tool on the market. Downside: the financial reporting is limited, which may be an issue as you grow your business. Cost: Starts at $15/month and goes up to $50/month

3. Xero Tax Touch- known as beautiful accounting software, this program's design is really easy on the eyes and geared towards freelancers/independent contractors. Best feature: easy-to-read report on your income, expenses and how much taxes you owe for the year. Downside: no invoicing capability, which is a huge downside for the woman on the go. Cost: $6/month

4. Sage One- geared towards the small business owner on the go. Best feature: great inventory tracking capabilities. Downside: this product is a little too robust for the freelancer or independent contractor, and therefore not very intuitive. Cost: $25/month

5. Kashoo- named the #1 accounting app on the iPad and really great for the traveling business owner. Best feature: works offline so you can access your data even if you are out of internet range. Downside: similar to SageOne, not necessarily an intuitive program for the freelancer or independent contractor. Cost: Approximately $17/month

And now we'd like to hear from you! Which accounting software do you use for your business and why? Leave a comment below.

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