Saturday, March 15, 2008
For me, I dread the middle of each month because that is the paycheck where most the bills come from. Well, not most, but the bigger ones - like the mortgage.I've never been fantastic with money, but improvement has come over the last couple years as I've learned to do the management on my own. The whole process has been trial and error with more error than anything. The process and pressure of the task was something I was oblivious to when I was with my ex. And if I could tell him one thing now, it would be that I should have been more thankful about his diligence on the task.
First came the money management software - MS Money. Too complicated. Doesn't interact well with my bank which made for extra steps just to get all my transactions sorted and what not.
I am now attempting another site, which I've had much more luck with an online system - Mint.com . It's supposedly still in Beta - and I figure that's because the updates don't happen as automatically as you'd like, but it's easy to remedy - just click the update button.
Obviously, there are many security issues that come with using a website for money management. But if you take the necessary per cautions, you should be safe. What per cautions? ... well, first, don't link it with a web-based email account like yahoo or gmail. And your password, better not be your pet's name or your birthdate.
The site doesn't display your account numbers or your social security number, etc, but it does store your log-in IDs to various banking/cc/etc accounts as well as your password so it can connect.
So far so good! As far as money management goes, I just now have to stop spending money on toys for myself... or D. The next big expense is coming up...and that is something we really need to save for.
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