Financial Infidelity

Financial infidelity can jeopardize your relationship. Do you have secret accounts that your spouse is not aware of? Do you withdraw funds from savings or other accounts without conferring with your partner? This is a serious breach. Ed Coambs, a Financial Therapist in Matthews, N.C., and author of The Healthy Love & Money Way says that focusing on the acts of infidelity rather than what’s at the root of them can cost couples not just their financial security, but also their future. According to Sigrid Foreberg, a reporter at MoneyWise, 3 in 10 Couples Have Dealt With Hidden Bank Accounts or Other Money Secrets.
 
One spouse may be educated in financial matters and the other is not or one makes significantly more money than the other and feels justified spending without divulging that information. In a January survey on financial infidelity from U.S. News & World Report, about one third of couples say they’ve faced the issue either as the partner who hid information about money decisions or as the partner who was left out.
 
Early on in my marriage, I discovered that my husband purchased a piece of Golf Teaching Equipment without my knowledge. Oh boy! That was a difficult day. I discovered it while we were on a vacation. We worked it out, moved on, and have not had another incident. We talk regularly about our finances - current immediate needs and goals for the future.
 
We use an online password Vault: LastPass. That keeps all of our usernames and passwords in one place. If something  happens to either one of us, the other will be able to access our accounts.
 
One of the services we provide at Simple Solution Organizing LLC is setting up an emergency planner for our clients. We create a dashboard that lists all of our client’s accounts, account numbers, important contacts, and other vital information. The emergency planner can be shared with our client’s important contacts (in case anything were to happen). For example, my husband and I shared our planner with our adult daughter.
 
Financial Literacy is critically important. I think the basics of how money works should be taught in every middle school and retaught in high school. I attended a webinar yesterday sponsored by the American Association of Daily Money Managers, during which the speaker, a family law attorney, told us that 50% of his clients (primarily women) do not know what a 401k was. He typically represents high net-worth couples. This is incredibly sad!
 
Money matters a lot. It does not matter what your status in life is: stay-at-home mom or dad, the spouse of a CPA, a money management professional, a student. You need to know financial basics, how to save and invest your money, know where your money is stored, and how to access it. This is true if you are single or married. I have worked with many widows who are coping with the loss of their significant other and the stress of learning how to manage their finances during the crisis.
 
If this blog post has made you uncomfortable and you feel overwhelmed about this subject, please schedule an appointment. We can help.

Adele Tusson-Gross
Chief Executive Organizer / Daily Money Manager
706-714-1314

​The Top 5 Credit Score Drivers

I recently attended a webinar through my Association AADMM, American Association of Daily Money Managers on Credit Scores. I learned so much and want to share this important information with you. Even if you are at a stage in your life when you don't need to qualify for credit you may have Adult Children or Grandchildren that can benefit from learning how to preserve and grow their credit scores.

There are 5 Drivers that affect Credit Scores:

1) Past Delinquencies: 35% of your credit score
Make your payments on time. For Collections, request a "payment for deletion" before paying the debt to erase the collection debt from your credit report.

2) Debt Ratio: 30% of your credit score
Keep credit card balances under 30% of their limit. Call your creditors to ask which day they report to credit agencies and make payments ahead of the reporting date. Paying down debt on your oldest card will have the most immediate positive impact on your credit score.

3) Average Age of File: 15% of your credit score
The longer you have an account open, the more it positively impacts your credit score. Never close down a credit card.

4) Mix of Credit: 10% of your credit score
Maintain various types of open accounts. Include revolving and installment lines of credit on your credit report. 

5) Inquiries: 10% of your credit score
Each time your request credit, a hard inquiry will be placed on your credit report and will likely drop your credit score between 3 and 8 points. You can comparison shop for auto or home financing during a 14-day window, and it will only count as one inquiry. Pulling your own credit score for educational purposes will not effect your overall score. 

*These tips are ONLY focused on credit scores and do not take
into account financial debt and consumer behavior. Therefore,
not all of these tips might be applicable to you. Before you take
any major action, speak to one of the credit coaches at CredEvolv. 

This information was obtained from
CredEvolv
877-850-3444
cc@credevolv.com

Happy Summer,

Adele Tusson-Gross
Chief Executive Organizer
706-714-1314
adele@simplesolutionorganizing.com

Financial Organizing / Professional Organizing / Downsizing

April & May 2022

4 Easy Steps To Improve Your Kitchen

We recently updated our kitchen. We put in new lighting, Granite Countertops, painted the Backsplash and all the Cabinets. We are so pleased with the results. This process created a lot of dust. It was the perfect time to reorganize our kitchen drawers.
 
How many bottle openers, can openers, pot holders, and garlic crushers do you really need? Do you own certain gadgets for specific holidays? Store those items somewhere else. Put a reminder in your reminders or in your calendar to remind you that you have stored Halloween and/or Christmas items in a different place. If you don’t take them out and USE them then donate.
 
Have you ever looked at one of your kitchen gadgets and thought…What the heck is this? My husband, Karl, and I said that a few times during this process. We got rid of several mystery gadgets. We also got rid of plastic lids that did not have a match. This process of going through our drawers and weeding them out created a lot of space. Now we can see and easily find our favorite kitchen tools and gadgets. Bonus: the drawer is aesthetically pleasing to look at.
 
Please don’t wait for a Kitchen remodel or a move to reorganize your drawers. If your kitchen drawers are cluttered here are 4 things to do now.

1. Take everything out of the drawer.
2. Group like items together.
3. Get rid of items:
   1.  multiple duplicates
   2.  items you never use
   3. plastic lids or bottoms that don’t have a match
   4.  mystery kitchen tools (What the heck is this?)
4.  Put remaining items back in the drawer in an organized way using containers.

Use containers within drawers to hold some groupings of items. I have containers for Wine Accessories: charms, stoppers and bottle openers; corn-on-the-cob skewers, chop sticks, and different types of peelers. Assess what you have and store them in different size containers that fit nicely in your drawer. Leave room for tall gadgets to lie flat.
 
Check out our new kitchen and reorganized drawers. Photos below.

Adele Tusson-Gross
Chief Executive Organizer
Simple Solution Organizing LLC
Daily Money Management, Professional Organizer & Downsizer

706-714-1314
www.simplesolutionorganizing.com

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​Organizing & Marriage
 
I have been Organizing professionally for 19 years. There have been several times in my career when a husband or wife has approached me and dragged me to a private place to discuss their spouses clutter. When they find out I’m a Professional Organizer they want my advice on how to get their spouse to be more organized. It may seem trivial to some people but it really is a huge issue for many couples. One person I know Professionally shared his situation with me about his then wife and how disorganized she was and how much clutter they had in their home. One year later they were divorced.
 
It is very difficult for someone who is very organized to live with someone who is very disorganized. Desperate people have contacted Simple Solution Organizing begging us to help them get rid of their spouse’s clutter while they are away on a trip. We have to respectfully decline. That is not ethical. They have to be a part of the process unless they have given permission to their spouse.
 
Is your spouse chronically disorganized? They may not be able to change. I think it is important to discuss with your spouse, or significant other, how the clutter resonates with you. They may brush it off as a non-issue. Hopefully, if they know how important this is for you, they will try to improve the situation.
 
Here are a few things you can suggest and try:

• Let your spouse think it is their idea to get organized. Gently remind them of a time when the clutter caused them pain. You want to HELP him or her alleviate some of this pain. / Example they could not locate their keys, a document, or a tool for an hour or more. You offer to help them create a permanent home for this item and others.
• Is your spouse open to hiring a Professional Organizer? If you keep having arguments about clutter and not being organized then it’s time to bring in a Professional. Professional Organizers are a neutral party. We can suggest and implement systems that you both can try. Also, a professional will have ideas that you may not think of yourself.
• There are Associations, Apps, Books, Blogs, Magazines, Seminars and Life Movements to motivate people to get organized. Here is a sampling of a few things you can recommend.
  • National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals
  • Becoming minimalist
  • 10 Apps to help you get more organized
  • Spark Joy by Marie Kondo
• You can ask your spouse if items of clothing and other items spark joy. If they don’t get rid of them. You can’t ask this of all items! It is necessary to have cat litter if you have an indoor cat. Cat litter does not spark joy for me but I have to have it. Another example is a broom, cleaning supplies and certain papers. I love the premise of spark joy but you also have to be realistic.
• Is your Spouse a Hoarder? There are Therapists that specialize in Hoarding. Here is a Clutter Hoarding Scale. Many people jokingly say, I’m a Hoarder or my spouse is a Hoarder. Check out the scale to see if that is really the case.

 
There is no magic wand that will mysteriously eliminate the clutter. It takes effort and maintenance. I tell my client’s that once the organizing project is complete it can revert back in a matter of weeks or months. There is no quick fix or one and done when it comes to organizing. Getting organized is worth your time and effort.
 
Organizing…Love & Marriage
 
Adele Tusson-Gross
Chief Executive Organizer
Simple Solution Organizing LLC
 
 
 

It's Your Money - Spend it Wisely

Do you know where your money goes? Do you know what Apps and Cloud Storage you are paying for and when it renews? Do you know what payment method you use to pay all of your bills? I know it is complicated and confusing. This is why auto renewal is so popular. Companies hide auto renewal in the fine print of the e-agreements when you sign up for online accounts, Apps, and subscriptions.
 
This information is extremely beneficial to have in one place. If something happens to you it is also extremely helpful for your heirs. If you have Elderly Parents, encourage them to take the time to create a spreadsheet with this information. Simple Solution Organizing LLC creates an Excel worksheet with this information for all of their Daily Money Manager Clients.
 
It is not difficult to create. It includes the following:

• Company, Person, or Business
• Account #
• Average Payment
• Autopay, Check or Credit Card
• Due Date
• Phone Number
• Notes

 
If you prefer to purchase a Template, I sell them for $5. Reply to this email and I will send it to you with a payment link. Template also includes a Tab for all of your Income sources.
 
Instructions for completing it:

• One year of statements for each Checking Account
• One year of statements for each Credit Card Account

 
Go through each statement and enter the payment information accordingly. If you see charges from Apple you will need to go into Settings on your iPhone, (Apple ID, iCloud, Media & Purchases), Media & Purchases, view Account, then view Purchase History and also Subscriptions. Charges from Amazon, Google, Facebook, and others will also require additional research.
 
To obtain an average payment for each of your Credit Cards: Compile 6 months or a years worth of payments and then divide by 6 or 12 respectively.
 
This will take time and it is worth it! Once you uncover everything that you are paying for you can cancel subscriptions you no longer want to keep.
 
It is just as important to list all of your income sources. List those on another tab as you work your way through your Checking statements.
 
​Adele Tusson-Gross