How to Start Managing Your Finances in 15 Minutes

There is no better time to start managing your finances than yesterday.  But if you didn’t start yesterday there is still hope.  The good news is that you can start managing your finances today in just 15 minutes.  If you are one of the millions of people who don’t know how to properly manage your personal finances, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling(NFCC) is a good place to start.

 

What is the NFCC?

 

National Foundation for Credit Counseling is a non-profit agency and the nation’s largest financial counseling organization.  The NFCC was founded in 1951 and provides financial services to more than 3 million people each year over the telephone, online, or in person at one of more than 700 community offices throughout the country.

 

The financial services offered by the NFCC include general financial education, bankruptcy counseling and education, budget counseling and education, credit counseling, housing counseling, debt management plans, and a whole host of publications, worksheets, calculators and other tools as well as many other resources.  One of the best tools they have available for people who want to start managing their personal finances is MyMoneyCheckUp.

 

What is MyMoneyCheckUp?

 

MyMoneyCheckUp is a free online financial analysis and budgeting tool.  It was introduced in 2011 and was recently updated to include Spanish language usability for the expanding Spanish-speaking population.

 

MyMoneyCheckUp provides you with a better understanding of your financial stability as well as helping you to build a monthly budget, and providing links to useful resources.  The tool is very easy to use and only takes 15 minutes to complete.  You start with a financial survey that covers everything from your accounts to budgeting to savings, home, retirement, and borrowing.  After entering all of your information you will be presented with a traffic-light style summary that gives you a better understanding of the areas where you are doing well and the areas where you need to improve.

 

The last section allows you to create a monthly budget.  It uses many of the answers you have already provided as well as collecting additional information about your monthly expenses.  By providing this information, you are able to instantly see your monthly net profit or loss.  You also have the ability to save and download your budget as a PDF file or an excel workbook file.

 

While the personalized information is a great benefit for many people, it’s not the most valuable benefit this tool provides.  The biggest benefit is its ability to give you a better view of your overall financial situation while pointing out the areas where you might want to focus in order to immediately start managing your finances today.

 

Even with the large availability of online advice and tools, too many people fail to properly plan and budget their finances.  That is the true value of this tool because it helps to better educate consumers about their finances, regardless of their particular situation.

 

Have you tried MyMoneyCheckUp?  Please let us know what you think about it in the comments.