Happy Wish! {out loud} Sunday! Robin, Krystina, and I are psyched you're here! Join us and share the love (and linky, too)! xoxo
*click here to read introductory post*
There's a perfect four letter word to describe my money management: SUCK. Because I do... I suck suck suck at it. I always have, but I REFUSE to always will.
I am always on the look out for tips and programs and internet sites to make my financials less of a disaster. I've tried to learn from Dave Ramsey, installed Quicken at least 3 times, signed up for Mint.com, and processed probably 30 budgets on every calculator to come before me. I've even failed at seemingly super simple techniques like the envelope system.
Here is what I've learned:
Mistakes
X I tried to be responsible and signed up for as many bills as I could for online management. Then, I literally adapted the thought 'out of sight, out of mind'. I literally forgot about some of my bills. It seems nearly every money management guru insists that this is a great idea, so I take complete responsibility for my lack of keeping track of my bills... whether online or not.
X I never prioritized my bills.
X I did not schedule a (revolving) time to process my finances.
Things I Seem to Have Done Right:
X I seem to do best when I stick to what I practice best. {that makes sense, right?} Through all of these attempts I seemed to best be able to keep a checkbook to keep up with checks. As in, actually keeping track of the list of checks. I LOVE tedious, at-hand tasks like lists involved in keeping a checkbook register.
aaaaaaaaaaand thats about it. Seriously! It's a shame!
SO! I HAVE TO GET ON MY GAME! Now not only do I have my personal finances to keep track of but I have our business account too. Are there any accountant friends out there? Does anyone have a suggestion for a program or a website that can make this happen for me this year!? I still have a copy of Quicken For Home 2007 that I haven't downloaded onto this laptop yet... if that helps.
Things I Seem to Have Done Right:
X I seem to do best when I stick to what I practice best. {that makes sense, right?} Through all of these attempts I seemed to best be able to keep a checkbook to keep up with checks. As in, actually keeping track of the list of checks. I LOVE tedious, at-hand tasks like lists involved in keeping a checkbook register.
aaaaaaaaaaand thats about it. Seriously! It's a shame!
SO! I HAVE TO GET ON MY GAME! Now not only do I have my personal finances to keep track of but I have our business account too. Are there any accountant friends out there? Does anyone have a suggestion for a program or a website that can make this happen for me this year!? I still have a copy of Quicken For Home 2007 that I haven't downloaded onto this laptop yet... if that helps.
Now don't forget to join in the excitement!
1. Write your blog post including your Wish! {out loud}.
2. Grab and display the Wish! {out loud} button in your post.
3. Link up through one of the hosts' blogs because it will show up on all three.
4. Start visiting other blogs, making friends, and make a Wish! come true.
I feel ya on the money management stuff. We're trying to save up to buy a house. I have finally come to grips with the fact that it's not because we don't make ENOUGH money, but rather we don't SAVE the right amount of money. We spend, spend, spend. Ugh. I just came across a blog called Making Sense of Cents. Google it. This girl is awesome and she is really good with all the financial management stuff.
ReplyDeleteBudgeting is the worst! My husband uses Quicken and loves it. Hopefully your wish comes true:)
ReplyDeleteaspiretoinspire
I think you've probably heard of the Money Saving Mom blog. I'm reading her book right now and there's one part on the very first page of the introduction that really jumped out at me. It says, "Saving money is going to take time and hard work. If living beneath your means or saving 65% on your grocery bills were effortless, everyone would be doing it!" I'm naturally very frugal, but money management (both keeping track of and determining when to spend and when not to spend) is still tough for me fairly often. So if you're good at tedious stuff like balancing a checkbook, then find a system that works for you using a checkbook. If certain things don't work for you (like the envelope system), then fuhgeddaboudit! The envelope system doesn't work for me either, so we stopped using it.
ReplyDeleteIf you're a goal oriented person, try setting really small goals related to money management. You might try to make a budget for one category at a time (like groceries) and work on staying within that budget for a couple of months to see how it goes and what methods work best for you in meeting that goal. If you want a spreadsheet that helps you track your grocery budget, I have one I can send you. It's been really helpful to me.
I don't know how much you've played around with Mint.com, but one of the features that I adore is the ability to post transactions as "pending" so that you can see both how much you actually have in the bank and how much you have after your bills are paid. So, say you have X number of dollars in the bank, but have Y number of dollars worth of bills due in the next 2 weeks, you can go ahead and enter those payments into Mint.com so you can see how much cash you can actually spend without overdrafting or spending more than you're comfortable with. You can totally do the same thing with a checkbook register if you prefer to do it that way! Anyway, sorry this is long. I love talking about money stuff so I get long winded!