It's never too late to get your finances in order. Taking the time to get your money straight is important for everyone, young and old. Stop putting off this critical activity!

Before you can move on with any financial goals, you need to assess your financial situation. Everyone's will be different, so what works for some may not work for you. This Instructable will cover the basics of getting your finances in order, but feel free to experiment and try a few methods to find what works best for you.

Follow along and I'll show you how to organize your money and have it make cents.

Step 1: Sort Money

A good place to start is by separating your types of money: plastic, paper, and metal. Not many people use metal money these days, as it's more convenient to use plastic, but these artifacts of the past still have value and it's important to count them in your finances, and to keep them in order.

While I was sorting my metal money I found a few strange coins from a far off place.

I can't use this currency where I live, so I can't count it towards organizing my finances. Besides, this foreign money looks very suspicious. You've got to be Loonie to think this is real money. I'm not counting it.

Step 2: Facing and Sorting

Once the types of money are separated I like to organize them by denomination, from smallest to largest. This is a personal preference, but the most sensible. If you wanted to take things to the next level you can sort each coin type by date, which is a fun way to discover old coins.

For paper money I rotate and flip each bill so that they are all facing the same direction. This makes identifying and counting much easier.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Now that you've got everything separated and counted, you've got your finances in order. Remember that even though you will have to spend some money, you should also save some and enjoy some.

Step 3: Bonus: Compound Interest

If you were paying attention in math class, you probably remember compound interest. There are a few methods to compound interest, but by far the easiest is to find any kind of mallet and give your money a couple of bonks.