Decluttering your finances is more rewarding than fixing your drawers
Do I care if your undies draw is arranged in neat bunches and your tee shirts are folded in thirds pointing vertically upwards in rows?
Certainly not. Go mess them up and stop being so obsessive.
But if you told me your wallet, bank account, store cards, debts, insurance, tax returns and KiwiSaver were decluttered of fees, pared back to the essentials and sitting in rows, I'd perk up with excitement. I'd also know you were lying.
I'll concede to living under a rock for the last two years, as Marie Kondo the Japanese de-cluttering expert is new to me. Gasp you might, but she never pushed her mindful spending message to the next step - mindful saving, investment and debt reduction. Decluttering our financial lives is more liberating than any undies drawer.
For other rock-dwellers, Marie is on Netflix and appears in every worldwide lifestyle article. Decluttering is now the "konmari method". At 34 years old, her name is a neologism; we konmari-ed our house this weekend.
She seems outstandingly good at it, too. It raises the question of "how"? How does a polite, efficient 34-year old suddenly become a worldwide inspiration on tidying up?
Success came from turning the issue on its head. View it from the opposite direction, make it positive and whammo everyone is hooked.
Kondo tells us to look at every item and ask "does it spark joy?" She decides what to keep, not what to chuck. She discovered this by fainting and a god-like voice imparting the wisdom. Yeah, that bit on Wikipedia got an eye-roll from me too.
But hey, if I go giddy and wake up knowing how to make you sort out your debts and retirement savings I'll grab a slot on Netflix and start the StaJani money method.
Rather than suffer the concussion, let's just plagiarise her version. Kondo's principles apply nicely, but money isn't her thing. She prefers physical mess.
She's good with paper and that's a great start. Your wallet will be sleek and minimalist, free of old receipts, coffee cards and muesli bar wrappers. Your filing cabinet will be airy. Gone is the receipt for the 1992 mini disc player and the dead dog's medical insurance file. The mail will be opened every day and if you touch it, you deal with it.
Then she seems to come up short. What next? We better ad-lib.
Using her principles, we need to visualise our financial pantry in nice neat categories; debts, savings, insurance, income and expenses. We imagine our ideal and commit to action.
Deal with each category, working from the least emotional, through to the most. It's those day-to-day expenses that you'll get the most emotional about. They deliver the quick buzz and are hard to part with.
The only stumbling block is this fluffy business of asking "does it spark joy", before our keep-or-toss decision.
The Japanese concept translates into flutter, throb or palpitate. That's a step too far for the mortgage and car insurance and the only palpitations are via the sheer shock of KiwiSaver fees.
Our financial lives come with many joyless necessities. When the spark is missing, just ask if it makes you richer.
Savings: Write a list. Every savings account, KiwiSaver, old forgotten Bonus Bonds. Is each one working for you, delivering the most it can, at a reasonable cost? Do you know your savings goals and what fund size you're aiming for in retirement?
Insurances: Have you searched for cheaper policies? Do you know all the policies you've got? Are any now redundant? Gather them up, list them out, discard, re-broker and question if you need more cover if disaster struck.
Income: Every pay packet sparks joy, but could you earn more? Is it time for promotion, moving company or negotiating more. Does your job make you happy or does your ideal world involve a new career?
Debt: We can't get rid of it by swooping it into a box under the bed. Consolidate loans. Get a better mortgage rate. Simplify your life down to a single debit and credit card. Give extra cards the chop. Look at each debt – did it make you tingle or give you sleepless nights?
Expenses: Go line-by-line through the bank statement. How many subscriptions? Netflix, apple music, storage space, magazines, strava premium, gym membership, mobile phone plan? One by one, do they spark joy? Are they part of your future? Look at your utility bills, coffee spending and nights out. Did every glass of wine get savoured, or was some of it mindless?
The konmari method suggests thanking each item you delete from your bank account. Perhaps that's all part of the positivity, but I'm too long in the tooth for that bit. It's akin to thanking a small blood-sucking insect for extracting fees, interest, premiums and unnecessary direct debits. Nah, let's not.
Rule 1: Commit yourself to saving more, spending less
Rule 2: Imagine your ideal financial position
Rule 3: Finish discarding first. Then tidy up the financial items you can't do without
Rule 4: Tidy by category: savings, insurances, income, debt, expenses
Rule 5: Follow the right order – least emotional to most
Rule 6: Does the outcome of each financial transaction spark joy or enhance wealth?
Janine Starks is a financial commentator with expertise in banking, personal finance and funds management. Opinions in this column represent her personal views. They are general in nature and are not a recommendation, opinion or guidance to any individuals in relation to acquiring or disposing of a financial product. Readers should not rely on these opinions and should always seek specific independent financial advice appropriate to their own individual circumstances.