Thursday, February 15, 2007

balance your books

i never balance my checkbook, there's just no reason to do it anymore with online banking. everything is handled for me online -- all withdrawals, deposits, interest, checks. i do however check my account online and make sure it is correct.

i rarely use cash, either. credit is convenient and helps me to keep a similar register of my purchases with the benefit of fraud protection, insurance, and points, rebates, or cash back. i use an american express cash rebate card with no annual fee, which rebates me 1.5% on all purchases. it doesn't sound like much, but it's free money.

i never carry a balance, so this really is a no brainer. no matter how painful it is -- and believe me, some months it can be quite so -- i always, always, always, without fail pay off my balance in full before the due date.

if you can do it, it can be a great way to live.

2 comments:

J Lugo said...

Gotta disagree. Really, you MUST balance your checkbook, even with online banking. My online bank "disappeared" $50 of my money. Believe me, I'm no checkbook dummy -- I know how to account for my money, add and subtract, etc. I even had my husband go behind me and check. But one week, $50 just disappeared. They launched an investigation, but of course, found nothing. I'm just plain ol' out $50...POOF! As soon as I can find a better online bank, I'm outta there.

aggressive saver said...

well, i don't write many checks, so it's not hard for me to pretty much just check online that my deposits go in and that my bills get paid. i just eyeball everything.

balancing checkbooks used to be a chore that you absolutely had to do when everything was manual and you could reconcile at the end of the month or quarter with your bank statement.

these days, since everything is so fast, i can hop online and see everything in pretty much real time.