Organizing your bills will help you prevent late or missed payments that result in extra fees and damage to your credit score. An organized bill portfolio also makes it easier to manage your cashflow if you’re trying to reduce credit card debt or save money for a specific purpose. Using a three-ring binder, you keep your bills in one place and divide them for easy reference.
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Collect copies of the bills you wish to include in your three-ring binder. Stack them and measure them to determine how thick your eventual pile will be. If you plan on using one binder for one year’s bills, stack and measure all of your monthly bills, then multiply that number by 12.
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Determine whether you will want to sort your bills by month, quarter, type or other division. Calculate how many divider pages you will need to keep your bills in your binder. For example, if you wish to keep all of your bills for one month together, you will need 11 divider pages to create 12 monthly divisions. If you wish to divide your bills by type such as utilities, rent, auto payments and the like, calculate how many divider pages you will need. Look for divider pages that have tabs on them you can mark for easy reference.
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Purchase a three-ring binder that will be big enough to hold all of your bills. If you have estimated how big your bill stack will be, buy a binder that is slightly larger than you need to accommodate divider pages, unexpected bills and notes you will keep. Purchase a binder that comes with divider pages. If the binder you want does not have enough divider pages, purchase one without them and buy a packet of divider pages. Purchase a binder with a pocket in the front and back so you can keep extra documents in the binder.
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Purchase a three-hole puncher if your bills do not come three-hole punched.
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Insert the divider pages into your three-ring binder and write the division names on each tab. If you are creating monthly divisions, write the months of the year on the tabs. If you are diving your binder by bill type, write the type of expense on each tab.
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Insert copies of old bills into the binder if you do not have your current bills so you can test the binder set up. You may find the holes in some of your bills that come pre-punched do not line up with the holes in bills you punch yourself. Adjust your system or make new punches in old bills if necessary.
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Add bills to your three-ring binder as they arrive. Save at least one envelope from each bill and place it in the back pocket of your binder in the event you ever need the address of the sender, if the address is not on the bill. Add tabs directly to the any bills you will need to find multiple times in the future.