On Wednesday, we talked about financial goals. Those are your destination — where you want to end up. Today, we’ll look at the other end of the journey — your starting place.

Next week, we’ll look at your current financial status in more detail. What you want to do this weekend is to begin to gather information. You’ll need things like all of your debt (mortgage, student loans, credit card balances), the most recent statements for any bank or brokerage accounts, statements from your retirement accounts, your most recent paystub.

If your financial life is well-organized, you likely know exactly which paper or electronic files you need to access. It may be a tad tedious, but you know where to find the information.

If you don’t know where to find that information and you aren’t even sure what debts or accounts you have, your financial situation may not be as good as you hope. You’ll want to schedule some time in the next few days to start gathering paperwork and/or setting up online accounts. It will take a long time. It will be tedious. It may be depressing. Do it anyway. I’ll se you back here on Monday.