Comments on: Streamline Your Finances and Make Your Life Easier By Not Hoarding

By: Bill

Bill — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 06:07:31 +0000

I can’t speak from any personal experience with hoarding and frankly don’t know anyone who hoards but I have to respectfully disagree with your fourth and fifth point.

Credit is currently the most marketed product in the US and the vast majority of Americans have a proven track record of mismanaging it. While you seem to be one of the small majority for whom credit cards have been a blessing, to most consumers they are a curse.

A dirty little secret that credit card providers don’t like talking about is that consumers spend more when paying by credit card than when they hand over hard earned cash. Consumers don’t feel the pinch of counting out each and every dollar when they swipe a credit card.

To the contrary, I would recommend that Americans put the credit cards away and spend cash as often as warranted, and don’t believe the hype that swiping a credit card will speed your transaction at the checkout counter. In fact, just put the credit card back in your wallet and step away from the plasma screen!

By: Structured Settlement Guy

Structured Settlement Guy — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:45:39 +0000

I have found having kids really ratchets everything up a notch! Great post.

By: Dom

Dom — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 05:54:07 +0000

Very funny. I agree with just about everything you have written. Since 2001, I have been using credit cards for everything and paying off the balance. The benefit of credit card use is I get cash back, my use is much easier to track, and if I mess up, I won’t have $50 minimum in bank charges. Also what I do is open 0% cards, fill the card up and save the rest while putting my savings and earning interest. At the end of the year term, I pay off the credit card and end up earning a fairly good amount of interest.

Online banking is also great because I get free bill pay, no fees, and 3.0% interest. Very funny that there is someone else with the same strategy as me…..

By: DaveL

DaveL — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:43:19 +0000

A personal theory is that some older (70+) people hoard because they remember the Great Depression, either from personal experience or from their parent’s stories.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:59:11 +0000

This was me some time ago. Not quite that bad, but going down that path. I think my problem was equating things with wealth, when that is clearly not the case. I’m not quite as clutter free and as efficient as I would like, but major changes like this don’t happen overnight – particularly streamlining and organizing files and documents. My goal is to go all digital as well. I think that is the best way.

As for convincing others to make these changes… I’m not sure it’s possible. You can make suggestions, but this is something that people need to realize on their own. Without the self-realization, they will not be willing to change.

By: Dan the Man

Dan the Man — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:38:16 +0000

Thanks for this article. For some, it can be dififcult to get out of the habit of using paper-based financial records. But I have to agree that electronic records are much more conventient and tidy. I like the idea of using a digital camera to convert a paper record to electronic — that’s handy for those who may not have a scanner.

Besides the electronic financial records, I also use Quicken software. It’s a very easy program that uses the familiar checkbook register. One feature that I have really, really learned to love is the attachment feature. For any transaction in the checkbook, you can attach a file. That’s very handy to attach a PDF or JPG file with an image of the actual reciept or bill. As your looking at your Quicken register, it literally is a single click to view the details behind that transaction. That for me is the single biggest feature they added in the 2007 (and newer) versions.

By: Raymond

Raymond — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:52:18 +0000

Mrs. Micah, that definitely reminds me of my parents and grandparents…lots of interesting excuses for keeping around old nostalgic items and long expired billing statements way past their usefulness.

My philosophy is – if you can’t use it right away or give a very compelling and concrete example of how a particular item can be used or appreciated within the next few months or years, it definitely deserves to be thrown away to free up space

By: Mrs. Micah

Mrs. Micah — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:04:12 +0000

I’m nowhere near clutter free, but I’ve learned a lot about not hoarding from my grandmother. Who hoards. So bank statements from 3 years ago get shredded. I just cleaned out a bunch of clothes I never wear. I don’t want to be her, arguing that a children’s mystery from the 30s is worth saving because someone might want to read it. Or a bank statement from 10 years ago.