How much time do you spend monitoring your finances?

Stonk

louise1234 wrote:

I am not on a tight budget at all, and have plenty of free money, so it's not that important for me to know where every penny is going. I always check I am not getting too low, but as I use one main current account I can keep a rough idea of the balance in my head.

I too am in this fortunate situation, but I have to say I find myself checking accounts and doing research just as frequently as most of the others here! I worry about making sure every penny is earning the best interest instead, so I often find myself fretting about transfers arriving on time because I don't leave much leeway. At the moment I'm fretting about having £15.5K in my current account for longer than necessary, £10.5K of it earning only 0.1%, which needs to be there because I've written a cheque for £14.5K to open another account - but could I have put it there a couple of days later...? Silly, but I can't stop myself.

I don't check everything every day, though - possibly only my current account receives that much attention, whereas most of the others won't have moved. Every Sunday I do a "Sunday review", which includes checking and reconciling every account. It also includes visiting the Windows Update site, updating virus definitions and other security software, and doing a backup.

Ember999

Ember999 wrote:

A lot of you are mentioning you use 'spreadsheets' etc. can anyone advice me how to make one? I have Microsoft Excel but have never used it and have no idea how to make a spreadsheet of the type you are all talking about! Can someone maybe send me a copy that I can adapt to me? I would appreciate it if possible as it seems so useful to most of you. Sadly, never known how to use Excel

Just wanted to say a big 'Thank You' to the lovely person who sent me a spreadsheet via e-mail. This will be so helpful to me :j

Soon, on the 14th Sept, I have a huge mortgage to pay LOL and as I will be running two houses on the same set of finances, this will make balancing my budget easier. Thanks so much hon xx

Ember xx

Walletwatch

Stonk wrote:

I worry about making sure every penny is earning the best interest instead, so I often find myself fretting about transfers arriving on time because I don't leave much leeway. At the moment I'm fretting about having £15.5K in my current account for longer than necessary, £10.5K of it earning only 0.1%, which needs to be there because I've written a cheque for £14.5K to open another account - but could I have put it there a couple of days later...? Silly, but I can't stop myself.

I can understand that sentiment, as I myself have gone through it a number of times - silly? maybe yes, but it does ensure that you are making the best use of your money.

In fact, I have always considered monitoring of your personal finances as no different from running the finance division of a corporate, or running a bank. All the basic accounting principles need to be followed here as well, so as stonk says above, you need to maximise your RoC by ensuring your money is earning the highest it can within acceptable risk levels (in case it's in a bank, almost risk-free)

I monitor my finances on a daily basis, and actually have a personal balance sheet and P&L on excel, which gives me an exact picture of where I stand, and what I can afford. Used to do this even earlier, at which point in time, the focus was on trying to limit the liabilities, but since the time I've started stoozing, the focus is to increase my balance sheet size, both by boosting liabilities (interest free money, that is not yours, and hence, has to fall under short-term liabilities) and my net worth !!!

I must say, the satisfaction is no lesser than actually being a successful CFO ;-)

Tony_H_3

If any of you folks whom have an "Excel Solution" to manage you day to day finances want to submit them to me I will look at creating a universal solution that most people will be able to use. If it is good, Martin might even make it available for download from the site!!

IMPORTANT NOTE
Please take the time to edit out your personal details including financial information, save the file as " XXX_DATE.XLS " the XXX will represent your initials eg ABC and the date will be 120805, giving a file name of ABC_120805.XLS

You can send them via e-mail by clicking on my username & selecting e-mail member.

Regards
Tony H

CopperPlate_2

Hmmm I think I am as obsessive as everyone else on this site. I spend about an hour a day generally sorting out the budget/MS Money accounts. I know what I have, where it is and where it is going and probably spend a further couple of hours on this site (time well spent of course!! )

CP

Turning_into_scrooge

I think i'm actually a little excessive as i can spend between 1 and 3 hours a day looking at all my accounts that i have set up on MS Money :eek: . I check my bank balance daily on my main account, my e savings and my isa and download and balance off my statements. I have all my debits and credits already in my account to look at up to the end of the year which i look at daily to make sure i've not forgot anything or if there is anything that can be cut back on or transferred into one of my savings accounts, which i do at he end of the month even if its only £1, it all adds up. I also have an account for the day to day money i have in my purse and if i spend anything even if its chucking the odd penny into my penny jar i debit that out of the account. This is the account i spend the most time on because i pay for everything with cash, I don't have cheque books or debit cards, so all my Tescos are in this account or window cleaner man etc. just 2 examples. My main account is for my DD, i take cash out of this weekly and transfer it into my purse account. I also check how my budget is doing on a weekly basis and amend accordingly. Like I said, these days i am totally obsessive, the days of not opening bank statements and ending up with excessive bank charges are long gone to me :T and i cant seen them coming back as i actually get withdrawal symptoms if i don't spend at least 1 hour a day on my accounts :eek: .

MissSunshine

Personally I update our cashbook spreadsheet most days and also have month budget v actual to see where the money's gone.

I've used Nationwide online banking since 99 when I got made redundant and even before that used to get mini statements to check where I was at. Even during redundancy when money was v tight I made sure I didn't go over authorised overdraft, I got a p/t bar job in the evenings so have never had a bank charge :j

Nothing obsessive or sad about it, no harm in knowing exactly where your at with your money, it's sensible really

boybeck

I have been using "Times Money Software" for five years now and can track all my finances back to then. It is fascinating to create bar charts of how my expenses have gone up!

It's a simple piece of software and very cheap on Amazon. I know someone slags it off in the review section but I couldn't live without it now.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005059J/202-5784388-1621439

$17mma

I am online chekcing my accounts 2-3 times a day. Sometimes more.

I dont think that is excessive I just think that is good management. Like with anything that you want to work for you time has to be put in and attention paid.

choccyface2006

I spend about 5 minutes a day on Microsoft Money and internet banking just to keep on top of things but I can spend ages analysing my spending, its facinating!

Sarah