How do ya'll manage your money?

[dugweb]

Okay, I know this question sounds stupid... but I'm just thought some of you guys could offer some good advice.

Right now I manage my money fine, but I buy and sell a very small amount relative to someone who's much more established. I mostly just keep track of my finances in my head, and collecting my monthly statments in a folder. BUT I could easily see myself getting overwhelmed when more and more bills for different things start rollin in from all different directions.

Is there any specific strategy or service you use to help you manage and organize your money. ( Like a big whiteboard, or just throw everything in a 'bills' folder, or does your bank organize it for you type thing)

 

[Zee]

Paper. pen. ink.

or if you really wanna get fancy, use excel.

If you reeeeally want to get extravagant, use quickbooks/peachtree.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Maybe something like Microsoft Money will help?

 

[mchammer]

I use a three ring binder. You can have two one for your investments, and on for your bills.

 

[dugweb]

up for more ideas

 

[Krazy4Real]

I just use my bank's website. Keeps me up to date on all deposits and withdrawls. I also use the online bill pay so I know when to expect bills and about how much they'll run me.

 

[illusion88]

some people like Quicken.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

excel, with one worksheet for deductions and the math part, and another for a list of bills, how they are paid (manual / auto), and when they normally come out...
Tas.

 

[vi edit]

MS Money has a very nice itemized report system that you can use to track individual items or group your debits by similarity.

Example - you can list individual items like car payment, gasoline expenses, oil changes, car insurance, ect. Or you can have them lumped under "Car expenses".

You can plug in auto-recurring things like student loan payments, rent, insurance, ect and have it auto track that and set up budgets that way.

It's very handy as long as you are diligent and accurate as using it as a ledger.

 

[kranky]

Quicken or Microsoft Money can do it all.

 

[Overkiller]

Excel. Much better than the rest for organization!