Run Your Life Like A Business – Part 1 of many…

As you can see in the header of my website, I have chosen the tag line of “Run Your Life Like A Business.”  I chose this statement because I think individuals and families across the nation take for granted their personal financial situation, unless they are in times of trouble.  You really should monitor your current financial situation on a consistent basis, so there are no surprises at any point in time.  What if you lost your job, would you have enough saved to live for 6 – 12 months?

Companies across the globe set processes and procedures in place in order to become and stay profitable in any market environment (some successful, some not).  This usually starts at the top (executive management) and works its way down to every employee.  Who is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of your household?  What processes and procedures does he/she/they have in place in order to become and stay profitable?  Are you managing your personal financial situation on a consistent basis?

Do you know your FICO score?

Microsoft Office Online (source of most of the documents below) has some very useful templates that anyone can use in order to take control of their life, and run it like a business.

Why not use your own simple stationary in order to professionally send notes to yourself and others?

What if you owned your own business and wanted to request a line of credit – how would you do this?

Own investments?  Want to track them yourself in Excel, instead of in multiple different websites?

How about a household monthly budget?  Have you ever told yourself, “I want to start a budget, but I don’t know where to start?!”  Once you complete the budget, the next step is to compare your budget to the actual amounts spent, on a monthly basis (also known as “budget-to-actual”).  This is the more difficult part.  If you can keep yourself motivated to track your actual spending and compare it to your budget on a monthly basis, it will open your eyes to your personal financial situation very quickly.

Going on vacation, or a business trip?  Need some sort of trip planning document for yourself or others, to know where you are, and some personal information if necessary?

Own a home?  Do you pay it monthly and have no idea how much is going to be applied to principle versus interest each month?  I think most people are surprised once they see how much (actually how little) of your payment is applied to principle during the first few years that you have a mortgage, especially with a 30 year loan.  Here is a mortgage amortization schedule which will automatically calculate the amount of your monthly payments applied to principle and interest, for the life of the loan.  This is really helpful for everyone.

Want to send a letter to someone?  Need to submit a resume via snail mail?  Want to send a letter to the editor of a newspaper?  For any type of letter that you would like to submit, make it more professional by using a letterhead template and envelope template.

Planning an event, or many events this year?

Do you use your credit often and not know where all that money goes?  Yeah, you get the bill each month, but you know you never remember all that you purchased on that card two months ago.  Track your credit card usage with this template, and you will be surprised of all the swipes you make!

Have a large credit card balance?  Need to pay it off?  Would you like to see how much you need to pay each month over a certain time period in order to pay the card off entirely?  Use this template.

Want to work for yourself someday?  Do you attend networking events with the goal of marketing yourself (not your company)?  I think everyone should have their own business card.  I am thinking about making one up for myself and this website. (not sure if you will be able to open this attachment – let me know if you have any issues).

Everyone should complete a PERSONAL FINANCIAL STATEMENT at the end of each month, to see where you stand.  I personal financial statement can also be referred to as a net worth calculator.  This is less of an “Income Statement,” and more of a “Balance Sheet.”  Once you have this template set-up for your own particular situation, it would be wise to complete it on a monthly basis, but make sure you save each month separately.  Then you can match each month up side-by-side in order to do some nice comparisons on a monthly basis, to see if your personal financial situation is improving or declining.

This is just the start of running your life like a business.  Brainstorm this weekend and think to yourself, “Who is the CFO of my household?”  If my life were a stock traded on the NYSE, would I buy it or sell it?  A new section to come in the near future on my website is going to be the MPF ticker.  My initials, MPF, are going to be used like a ticker symbol of a publicly traded company.  I am not going to give it a dollar value, however I would like to analyze MPF and give it a UP or DOWN for the day and/or week, based on income earned and expenses for that particular day/week.  Seems like a good way to continue to “Run Our Life Like A Business.”