We're continuing our series on getting your life in order. This week, we're looking at finances.

The first step in getting your finances in order is to see where you stand today. That means developing a net worth statement and a budget. This step is very time-consuming, but it will be worth it.

You can find a form for outlining your net worth here:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/pdf/networth.pdf. A form for your budget is here:  http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/pdf/BudgetWorksheetPost.pdf.  You may have to add some categories for specific expenses you have.

To fill out these forms, you'll need the most recent statements for all of your deposit accounts — checking and savings, 401k, IRA, Roth IRA, mutual funds, college funds, binds, etc. You'll also need about a year's worth of your bills. I suggest working from 12 months of documentation since some bills are annual. You don't want to get a nasty surprise from an un budgeted large bill that shows up only once a year.

Once you've filled out these forms, you need to understand what the forms mean.  Your net worth gives you a sense of your financial health. You want your net worth to be a positive number. If that number is negative, you need to take a serious look at ways  to reduce expenses and debt. Above all else, stop adding to debt unless you are in an emergency situation. If the number is positive, you may want to divide it into assets that can easily become cash (stocks and bonds) and those that cannot (IRAs and real estate).

Your budget form tells you how you spend your money. In order to save more money, you need to either increase your income or decrease your expenses. Those are the only two choices. In the days ahead, we'll look at this further.