Cutting back on Admin

kimwp

annielyn said:

kimwp said:

What's your intent with keeping such meticulous records? And worry if you don't?

I think its just habit to be honest. I've done this ever since we first had a home computer in the early 90's. As I say I think its partly down to the job I do. Also my father was an accountant and was similarly diligent with keeping financial records so its probably learned behavior.  I do find it interesting comparing year to year and how our expenses pan out. However, I'm aware this is not really necessary and I need to ease off a bit.

Ah ok, I wasn't sure if it was for tax audit purposes. If it's just to keep an eye on things to keep within budget, then you only need to do it at the frequency that keeps you on track. I've found that reviewing my spends roughly once every two months is enough for this, but tend to do it on a monthly basis because that's a fairly natural cycle of when my wage comes in and bills go out. 

Albermarle

annielyn said:

Albermarle said:

I have been retired four years and I do not log anything on a day to day basis.
I check the credit card bills before paying them.
I move cash around between my current account, and easy access savings account as and when necessary.
I check my S&S ISA's and DC pension pots intermittently and make a record of the numbers every 6 months or so. 
From time to time I will close/open new savings/investments/pensions accounts, and make small changes to my investments.

On the other hand I am fully up to date ( I think) with the latest developments in pension legislation, inheritance tax, savings tax and current/financial news. 

My relaxed attitude is probably due to two things:
1) Although I was not an accountant, I was in the commercial world and had to spend lots of time with spreadsheets, analysing figures. So not much point in retiring if I carried on doing that a lot.
2) Having worked probably more years than I needed to, I have more money than I really need. The 'problem' ( like a few  on these forums) is spending it all, rather than monitoring it down to the last penny.

Thats a nice problem to have!

It is one of those ‘first world ‘ problems, or as an old Boss used to say a ‘luxury problem’, from a financial point of view at least.
However life is not such a simple equation, and one reason we can not spend more , is due to a  difficult family/health  situation, restricting our ability to spend money on lots of holidays etc
Also to be fair I have never been that keen in my working life in too many details. More of a thinking on my feet kind of person. 

MayDogsandCoffee

I don't reconcile but do have a basic exel spreadsheet that goes back many years.  I am likely to continue with it, helps budget, I know when insurance is due - how much I paid for services the previous years etc.  I try and list daily spend.

silverwhistle

When I went up to university in the early 70s I did keep a record of everything I spent, but then I'd never had any money to manage before apart from a little PT employment income. Plus I was studying history and thought it might be interesting to look back: 2d packet of polos, A4 paper, pint in union bar etc..

Now I do very little: checking the entries on my credit card and noting how my current account balance is trending to see if action is needed in any way. I do have a rough budget spreadsheet but I rarely update it except for known items like council tax or the energy standing order. No embarassments so far. If my balances were trending downwards I'd be more rigorous! 

annielyn

Thank you everyone for your suggestions and insight. I have decided that I will stop most of my record keeping at the end of this year. I run the spreadsheet with the calendar year so by December we will have had a couple of months of SP so I will have a good idea of what our new financial situation looks like. I've used my previous year's annual summary (+ a small increase for inflation) to produce a budget and worked out what we need to be putting away each month to cover annual expenses (Car Tax and Insurance, Holidays, Birthdays and Christmas etc). I'll still check the bank and credit card balances at the end of each month just to see if we are keeping within budget and if funds need moving around etc. This is going to be a huge change for me (my husband was very surprised when I told him) but having made the decision its been quite freeing. Now I just need to stick to it!

Nebulous2

annielyn said:

Thank you everyone for your suggestions and insight. I have decided that I will stop most of my record keeping at the end of this year. I run the spreadsheet with the calendar year so by December we will have had a couple of months of SP so I will have a good idea of what our new financial situation looks like. I've used my previous year's annual summary (+ a small increase for inflation) to produce a budget and worked out what we need to be putting away each month to cover annual expenses (Car Tax and Insurance, Holidays, Birthdays and Christmas etc). I'll still check the bank and credit card balances at the end of each month just to see if we are keeping within budget and if funds need moving around etc. This is going to be a huge change for me (my husband was very surprised when I told him) but having made the decision its been quite freeing. Now I just need to stick to it!

Sometimes keeping doing something is easier than stopping. I had a friend who meticulously logged everything on microsoft money. Something happened to his computer, he lost his back-up, bought a new laptop and never went back. 

Talking to him, he doesn't miss it, but wouldn't have stopped if an IT issue hadn't triggered it. 

kimwp

Sounds like a good plan.

I used to do my finances by calendar year, but changed to financial year as that aligns with when council tax increases and contracts increase by rpi

MayDogsandCoffee

Nebulous2 said:

annielyn said:

Thank you everyone for your suggestions and insight. I have decided that I will stop most of my record keeping at the end of this year. I run the spreadsheet with the calendar year so by December we will have had a couple of months of SP so I will have a good idea of what our new financial situation looks like. I've used my previous year's annual summary (+ a small increase for inflation) to produce a budget and worked out what we need to be putting away each month to cover annual expenses (Car Tax and Insurance, Holidays, Birthdays and Christmas etc). I'll still check the bank and credit card balances at the end of each month just to see if we are keeping within budget and if funds need moving around etc. This is going to be a huge change for me (my husband was very surprised when I told him) but having made the decision its been quite freeing. Now I just need to stick to it!

Sometimes keeping doing something is easier than stopping. I had a friend who meticulously logged everything on microsoft money. Something happened to his computer, he lost his back-up, bought a new laptop and never went back. 

Talking to him, he doesn't miss it, but wouldn't have stopped if an IT issue hadn't triggered it. 

Mine is on work computer, I need to transfer it across, I would hate to lose it but would also probably stop, esp now that balances can be checked online.

Dizee123

I have kept an A4 book of my expenditure ever since I was 17 and had my first wages.  I also reconcile my bank statements against this - although these days it is more of a case to ensure that I haven't used the wrong card and charged an expense to the wrong account!  This was before computers, and I am sure over the years it has just become a habit.  I also transfer to a spreadsheet once a month and it doesn't take me very long at all.  I like going back in time to analyse information and compare prices (although sometimes the costs years ago make me want to cry when I compare with costs now).

The reason I originally started was that I went overdrawn by a few pounds and received a very stiff letter from my bank inviting me to think about the consequences of spending money I did not have!  At my young age this frightened me enough to never spend more money than I have earned and keeping a record of accounts prevented me from ever going overdrawn again.  My bank also called me in for a discussion on the importance of saving and set me on the path to regular savings.

Another reason I found it useful was that the detailed records allowed me to work out exactly how much I spent every month and year so I could retire early with confidence that I could afford it. 

I still find it useful to log expenditure and if there is a computer malfunction and I lose all my back ups, I will still have the hard copies to prove to HMRC which gifts are over 7 years old and thus not liable to IHT, which gifts are from regular income, not savings etc. etc.

Overkill, but I enjoy doing it
I am sure my children will have a great time shredding or burning all the books when I am dead.....

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

I think it depends on your personality. I enjoy keeping records, making updates and inventing new systems. Each to his/ her own.