Keeping Finances on Track While Jet Setting

Automate As Much As You Can, Schedule The Rest

I'm just an unmarried guy living alone and I'm amazed at how many bills I have to pay every month. If I had to check my mail every day, write checks for every bill, plant a stamp on an envelope, and send out payments it'd be a part-time job in itself! I've tried to set most of my bills to automatically bill my credit cards. In a way, that combines all those bills into one payment-- my credit card payment. Some bills like student loans payments or car insurance payments I have to pay manually or ensure there is money in my account so they can automatically debit from my bank account. For all these bills I setup reoccurring entries in my calendar (I use Google Calendar) which are set to send me a reminder email anywhere from a day or week before payment.

This means I don't have to spend time worrying or thinking about when bills are due and can use those brain cycles to more efficiently focus and concentrate on productive things required to make money to pay the bills.

Track All Your Accounts in One Place

I've written about FullView, Mint.com, and other services that will let you monitor all your bank accounts, loans, and benefits in one place. These are excellent to keep an eye on your checking account balance, net worth, credit card charges, and other parts of your financial life quickly and efficiently. If you have an account with Fidelity, you can use FullView today. Otherwise, check-out Mint and get a taste of what it's like. You'll have to spend a good amount of time initially getting all your accounts setup with correct logins, passwords, and security questions, but it can be a big time saver in the long run.

Collect Frequent Flyer Miles and More

A couple weeks ago I used 95,000 frequent flyer miles to book a trip for my girlfriend and I to Cancun for only $100 (this covered fees, taxes, and first class part of the way). While I'm down there staying at the Hilton I'll collect a bunch of Hilton Honors points that will mean some free hotel rooms for future vacations. Even if you aren't flying enough miles for a free flight or aren't staying in enough hotels for free nights it's possible that joining these programs will at least give you discounts, ensure your reservations are held if you check-in late, or can be combined with other programs to give you benefit.

Track Business Expenses

Hopefully if you're traveling a lot for your job they will reimburse you for all your expenses. If they do, though, you probably share the pain of dealing with your accounting department to record and track those expenses (admittedly, I hate doing this cause it feels like a time waster, but realistically you should worry if your company isn't keeping a close eye on employee spending as it could effect the overall well being of the organization and thus your own job). For expenses you might not be able to get reimbursed for due to some particular company policy it's still possible you might be able to write it off on your end of year taxes. Just remember to always keep all your receipts (itemized receipts, not just check stubs or credit card receipts).