Managing Your Money

Last year, I signed up for a personal financial program called Mvelopes. The concept of budgeting money in envelopes before the expense instead of after the fact was logical. In fact, my mother has used this same concept for years, but with an actual binder, envelopes and an accounting ledger...oh, and real cash. Mvelopes allows you to sync your accounts online to provide you with real-time account information. I tried Mvelopes for about three months and decided that I really do not like to pay a monthly service fee for something I could do for free. I told myself and the support staff at Mvelopes that I would probably try it again in the future.

Today, I thought about Mvelopes again since I've been diligently attempting to manage my finances. Then I wondered if there were any "free" personal financial tools out there. I found a handful and decided that I would test each one. The only problem is that I like all of them, but each one has an issue that relates to me. Here is what I think about the two that I liked the best but I would recommend you try them out yourself to find just the right fit for your financial situation.

Mint...Refreshing Money Management
This tool seemed to be the easiest to upload. All my accounts except for one department store credit card were able to sync online. Every financial account that I own is now on one screen with reports, graphs, and alerts. I know exactly how much money I have in my checking & savings, and how much credit is available on each credit card. There are so many features to check out that I am still finding links that are useful to me.

I will post again on the other online programs over the next few days, but here they are if you want to go ahead and check them out. Some are better than others and some are just basic finance trackers which sometimes can be exactly what you need.

fnCentral...the Free Personal Finance Manager for the Web

Yodlee MoneyCenter

WhatBills?

Foonance

Money Strands - Money Management Made Fun and Easy

All Work and No Goals Make for a Broke Girl

I've been reviewing several personal financial sites lately and I just realized that I don't have any goals. Sure I have goals floating around in my mind about everyday life, but what am I doing for my financial stability? How can I expect to achieve anything if I first haven't set a goal...even if it is small and short-term.

First things first...I opened my bank statement today and headed straight to the "Interest Earned" section. Well, Lordy be, I don't think I will be reaching any goals, not even the smallest inkling of a goal, with the whopping $0.14 I earned for the month of December. That incident caused the "creation" of my first financial goal...to earn more interest than the cost of a piece of peppermint on my hard earned dollars.

Goal #1 - Earn a higher interest rate ~ Accomplished ~
I opened a high yielding online checking account last night to get started. Instead of earning an APY of .21%, my new online checking account is earning 3.92% APY. (Unfortunately, today's economy has caused a drastic decrease in APY's.  Charles Schawb is now at .25%.) There were higher yielding accounts available, but the bill pay feature is very important to me and this one seemed to be the best. This will be my first comparison test.

Goal #2 - Pay myself first (10%)
For some reason, this has got to be the hardest financial step of all. It is hard for me to understand "why am I paying myself, when I can't even pay my bills." To accomplish this, I set up an automatic payroll draft straight into my credit union. Once I get the higher yielding account situated, I will have the 10% drafted there instead of the low yielding credit union. I think it's about .01% APR. Currently, I am "paying myself" .7%. Still a long way from 10%, but I will make it. I have to get to a point where I don't miss the money from my paycheck.

Goal #3 - Snowball my credit card debt
I downloaded Dan's Super Snowball Plan and have put it in action. I haven't yet made it to the point of paying off one card and then using that amount towards another credit card. But I'm getting there.


Goal #4 - Minimize my spending
I should have listed this goal as the hardest since I don't think of money as a total amount but more like an instant visual. If I budget $100 to spend on eating out, as long as I don't spend $100 at one sitting, I think I'm doing great. But after they all add up, I have spent well over that $100, probably enough to feed a third world country for a week. Eating out is definitely my biggest weakness. One month, we spent over $800 eating out in one month surpassing my grocery spending by $500.

I know this is only a start, but that's what it takes. You got to start somewhere and I'm definitely starting small, but I'm dreaming big and eventually I will set my goals a little higher. I feel that the goals I have set are at least attainable...and eventually surpassable. (Is that a word?)