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tracking your finances

new year means a fresh set of spreadsheets for tracking my finances & budgeting etc.
what i'm interested to know is whether most of you run a calendar year (Jan-Dec) or tax year (April - march) ?
I've always done calendar year but thinking maybe better to change to tax year?
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  • pramsay13
    pramsay13 Posts: 2,083 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I've always done financial year as it ties in with any statements or letters from the bank.
  • colsten
    colsten Posts: 17,597 Forumite
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    I use AceMoney to track my finances. I have set up my usual reports for financial years, but I can easily change it to calendar years, or any other period, if I need to. Reason I use financial years is mainly to do with tax returns. which period you use is down to your personal needs.

    MS Money (free now, as no longer maintained) and other personal finance manager software also allow you to use any period you like.
  • getmore4less
    getmore4less Posts: 46,882 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper I've helped Parliament
    Budgets/tracking should be continuous looking forward a year minimum.

    Use a tool like MSMoney you can budget years ahead in as much detail as you want updating on a continuous basis and create reports for any period you need even into the future to do long term planning.

    The main reason they stopped developing MSMoney is the years of development meant there was nothing new they could put in to get people to buy a new version.

    What makes MSMoney work is it models the real world very closely.
  • new year means a fresh set of spreadsheets for tracking my finances & budgeting etc.
    what i'm interested to know is whether most of you run a calendar year (Jan-Dec) or tax year (April - march) ?
    I've always done calendar year but thinking maybe better to change to tax year?


    Err, neither, I do it from my Birthday, but that's either because I'm calculating to my retirement age or I'm just a bit weird :p
    Retired 1st July 2021.
    This is not investment advice.
    Your money may go "down and up and down and up and down and up and down ... down and up and down and up and down and up and down ... I got all tricked up and came up to this thing, lookin' so fire hot, a twenty out of ten..."
  • blue.peter
    blue.peter Posts: 1,353 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Budgets/tracking should be continuous looking forward a year minimum.
    I'm curious. Why do you say that?

    I'd take a much less prescriptive approach, and say that budgets and tracking should look as far forward as suits the individual.

    I've never found it necessary to look as much as a year ahead. There was a time (1980s/early '90s) when I had to look six months ahead. This was simply because I had to pay my mortgage interest half-yearly and utilities quarterly, and so needed to estimate an appropriate amount to put aside from my monthly salary to pay them. These bills gradually shifted to monthly payments, and I stopped needing to look even that far ahead. I don't think I've bothered about anything beyond the end of the next calendar month in twenty years. I still don't, and don't see any need to. Anything large or unexpected (such as the boiler that had to be replaced a few years ago) simply means a bit of a hit for my savings account.
  • getmore4less
    getmore4less Posts: 46,882 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper I've helped Parliament
    edited 25 December 2019 at 3:40PM
    If you want to budget properly you need to capture all claims on your money resources.

    Most people have items that are on annual cycles you need to include them in any plan.
    (paying monthly often has high charges)

    Many spends will be variable month to month like clothes, holidays, car bills, xmas entertainment.
    Normalisation over a year gives a very good picture of where your money goes to help prioritisation.

    Then you have the longer term stuff like, white goods, car replacement house moves, and retirement.

    Without the plan it is all hope you have enough.
  • MDMD
    MDMD Posts: 1,501 Forumite
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    new year means a fresh set of spreadsheets for tracking my finances & budgeting etc.
    what i'm interested to know is whether most of you run a calendar year (Jan-Dec) or tax year (April - march) ?
    I've always done calendar year but thinking maybe better to change to tax year?
    I do September to August because a few years ago I decided to start budgeting properly and that September has that “new year” feel to me from when I was at school!

    I separately track interest, pension contributions, salary to the tax year!
  • I do Jan to December and work out my fixed yearly spending, leaving a few blank rows for eBay / credit card spending as and when used throughout the month.
    Mortgage started 2020, aiming to clear it in 2026.
  • blue.peter
    blue.peter Posts: 1,353 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    If you want to budget properly you need to capture all claims on your money resources.
    I see. Your approach is rather more detailed than I've ever found necessary. I guess I'm just rather more relaxed about the subject than you.

    The variable expenditure like clothes, car maintenance and so on simply get put onto my credit cards for payment the next month. I have a benchmark monthly credit card expenditure, and know that if I go over it I should keep a close watch on it, and maybe try to defer some spending a bit. If I then go 50% over the benchmark, I'll probably have to dip into savings. All credit card spending is recorded as it happens in AceMoney, so I can always see how much I owe on my cards.

    My way of capturing the larger expected costs is to put them into AceMoney as scheduled payments, so that they become visible automatically a few weeks ahead. If the result is that next month's income isn't enough to cover one as well as the regular monthly expenditure plus credit cards, I simply move a bit from savings into my current account to cover it. I keep enough in easy-access cash savings to pay for anything likely to come up, up to and including a car. If it's ever not enough, I guess I'll have to dip into the ISA.

    This system (as it's evolved over time) works for me, and has served me well for about 40 years.

    Whilst your approach certainly has merits, and is probably useful for many people, I still wouldn't be so prescriptive. Everyone should find and use the method that best suits them.
  • what i'm interested to know is whether most of you run a calendar year (Jan-Dec) or tax year (April - march) ?

    Actually, the tax year is 6th April - 5th April.
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