B. Do a stated income or no doc loan – These types of loans are done all of time, where you need no proof of income, you only state on a form what your income is, and you do not need to verify it. This can help if you are self employed and want to state your income as it is and not worry about having lender average out your income from last two years instead. Make sure you are accurate in stating your income, because lender may be able to obtain past taxes from IRS to confirm it. When you do a stated income loan, this will put more emphasis on your down payment or credit score. So, you will usually need one of these factors to be strong if you want to go this route. Most of time when you do a stated income or no doc loan, you will be charged a slightly higher interest rate because of extra risk lenders carries.

C. Put together a profit & loss statement stating accurately stating your profits and expenses from last two years. This can be a time consuming project, but it can sometimes be used as income verification for a lender. It is more usable if you have had it signed or verified by your accountant.

There are many ways that lenders can work with you if you are self employed. There are many programs available to help you and if you have a down payment or decent credit, you are almost guaranteed to be able to get approved somewhere. To see our list of recommended lenders that would be able to help you, visit here: Recommended Mortgage Loan Companies Online or here Recommended Bad Credit Mortgage Loan Companies Online

6) Put all “paid” items away first. Be ruthless – it’s perfectly okay to toss receipt for those mints from two years ago.

7) Put rest of inactive items in envelopes, file folders, check files or other storage devices as are interesting, functional, and readily available from your local office supply store.

8) Have another cup of coffee and tackle active, or open, items. Decide what you’re going to pay and when. If you have an open stacking file, you will find one with four compartments (one for each week of month), very handy for this purpose.

9) Balance your checkbook. Now.

10) Enjoy your chocolate after putting everything away where it belongs and, oh, by way, check calendar for when you’ll be doing this again next month.

Of course, next month this will all be done much faster.

I highly recommend using technology to make this much easier and faster. Programs like Quicken and Microsoft Money will help. Really any spreadsheet program will do.

Have a category for each life area you spend money. Once a week or month take your receipts, checkbook records and scribbled notes and record where you spent ALL your money....every penny. One of my students was shocked to find out he was spending $75 per month on orange juice!

Legend has it that Rockefeller boys kept track of all their spending and they turned out alright.

This time next year you’ll wish you started today.