Wholesale Superme Hats Don't Balance Your Checkboo

You decide what you want money for and when you need that money. We get one thing and something else pops up. Our money has a tough time keeping up with our imagination and desires. It's important to list the item, the dollar amount and the due date. Here's an example of a Wish List:
4. Use your talents/gifts to serve the world - the best way for you to serve the world is in doing what you love and/or loving what you do. You have a core genius. You have within you the most wonderful talents and gifts. How do you know what they are - its simple - you feel BRILLIANT when you're pursuing them! So pursue them and keep nourishing them. Then start asking questions like - how can I use my talents and gifts to serve my family, my community, my country, the world? How can I begin to earn an income from what I love and how then can I get it to grow? As you take each step on such a path you leave behind a path which is illuminated with love, with kindness, with joy, with happiness, with passion and it acts as a lighthouse for those who find themselves in stormy seas. Does it take courage? Absolutely! And this is one of the traits you have in abundance - simply take the first step and keep going!
With the Lifestyle Analysis, you are listing what you are spending now. Change the categories to fit your situation. Look at your credit card bills and checkbook to get a good estimate of what you are spending. It answers the question, "What does your lifestyle cost?"
Enjoyment. I want you to enjoy the fact that you have the money to do whatever you are doing. Appreciate the fact that you can pay for the necessities and that you have some money for the niceties and the luxuries. Enjoy what you have. Relish it. Don't take anything for granted. Think about how you would open a velvet jewelry box, or a hard plastic enclosed gadget from your favorite electronics store. You'd be feeling this is special; this is worth having. Cultivate the same mind set about paying the oil bill (which in the Northeast with oil at $100 a barrel might as well come gift wrapped in a luxurious package).
First is the Wish List. What do you want money for?
The Overview sheet has saved a lot of people from distress because it's one page. You can see in one view-when money is coming in to you and when it is going out to someone else. Seeing your money life on one tidy sheet can eliminate the surprise of -Oh... I forgot that bill! It keeps you on track. The Lifestyle Analysis and Overview sheet stabilize the spending by making it very clear to you.
The gyroscope people stay in balance because they operate within a predictable range of choices. So they are "safe" and managing well in their own unique way and they are staying clear of down-to-the-penny-record-keeping which would give them something much worse than a headache.
The best way to implement this plan is in three steps:
Here's the secret formula for those of you who are very busy, or who hate budgets, or who want to be more like the gyroscope person even though you are not so predictable and controlled with your spending. This process will keep you in good order if you are willing to pay attention to just a few things.
Now before I get accused of giving bad advice or advocating irresponsibility, let me explain that as a financial planner my goal is to help you succeed and make better financial decisions. To do that I must know you and your habits. You do not come to my pod cast, article or office as someone with no money history, no money preferences. So I need to understand how much tolerance you have for changing your habits. It may be zip. IF it has been years since you had a good relationship with your checking account, and you are managing to pay all your bills and stay afloat, then let's deal with who you are. In the spirit of understanding how to manage our very busy lives, and our preferences-I offer a comparison of the penny people and the gyroscope people.
The gyroscope is a mechanical instrument like a balancing wheel; it's a stabilizer, and a sophisticated version of it keeps our airplanes properly oriented in space. The gyroscope person manages money by being consistent in action whereas the penny person is consistent in arithmetic. The gyroscope person spends about the same amount every week on the same categories like food, gas, medicine ed hardy clearance Home Businesses - Two Ways to A, entertainment, phone. This person will complain a lot about the cost of familiar items going up and may choose not to buy something as a result.
The Federal law sets a number of parameters; such as the dollar amount of the check, the bank it is written on, the person it is paid to. For instance, if you have had a lot of overdrafts on your account, that may hold up the check. If your bank has had serious problems with the other bank that could delay the process.
How do we get in trouble with money? Many, many ways. OOPS!
Oops! the ATM machine said we had more money, but ....
3. Create a new identity - we are creative beings. Instead of having an identity which is attached to anything outside yourself, which is subject to change and ultimately beyond your control, base it on the infinite wisdom and greatness that is within you. This can never be taken away from you, recession or otherwise. You can begin to affirm to yourself "I am an infinitely creative and resourceful person", "My greatest hour has yet to come", "I am so happy doing what I love and loving what I do and getting richly rewarded for it", "the greatest moment of my life is this one - the more I truly live it, the more fulfilled I am and the more the future blossoms." Its also a good idea to remind yourself of what you really like/love about yourself - make a list and smile with every wonderful trait you posess. And let those you love know how wonderful it is that they are part of your life.
For some of you the idea of not balancing your checkbook is a heresy. It is unthinkable that you would not know down to the penny how much was in the account and which checks were waiting to be cleared.
Many people own their own homes, not because they were brilliant, but because every month they had to pay the mortgage. That consistency is like your funding your Wish List.
With these three steps you have a structure for funding your Wish List, and staying on track with your lifestyle. Set it up, fund it and forget it. You are not going to fuss over a budget; you are simply going to commit to putting a set amount of money into each Wish List account and watch that account grow so you can have what's on your Wish List. The fact that you are funding each Wish List account, and the balance on your credit card is not going up is all you need to know. You do not need to worry about spending too much on entertainment or shoes or gardening. You don't need to balance your checkbook. Remove the stress and enjoy the good life you are working for.
Other problems that can interfere with your being correct about the balance in your checking account come from banks charging more fees and your not being alert to them. According to a recent book by Bob Sullivan, Gotcha Capitalism, ATM machines may notify you about the amount that you pay to use your ATM but not another bank's charge, so you have incomplete information about what you were charged when you were using another bank's machine. Likewise the fees for overdrafts can wear down your balance.
For penny people, these fees and the interest they may receive on the cash balance in their account are all carefully noted. They like knowing down to the penny where the money is. When a penny person lives with a gyroscope person, we have the potential for perpetual fights.
So now you have a Wish List, how do you fund it? How much do you put in each "pocket"? You can level fund each goal. The vacation would be $100 a month for ten months. The car would be $200 for 15 months. The cash reserve, emergency fund would build up at $333 a month. Retirement is $200. The total you would need each month for this set of items is $833.
Step Two-open a separate bank account for each goal.
This is the secret to success and low maintenance. Open an account for each item in the Wish List. These can be in one bank or many banks. The important part is that each account has one clear job. So when you look at it growing you know you are on track for that goal. So simple.
Why is the ATM machine misleading? It lives in the moment and has no historical perspective. Maybe, the checking balance states $2,400, but that money may be spoken for. You may have already written checks which will carry that money away to pay what you owe. Ah yes, the timing is everything.
1) I want $1,000 in ten months for a vacation.
2) I want a down payment of $3,000 for car in 15 months
3) I want to fund my retirement account with $200 a month.
4) By the end of 16 months Wholesale Superme Hats, I want to have a safety net of at least two month's worth of expenses. Even if you lost your job you could keep yourself going as you look for work.
For others it is natural to not balance a checkbook and you have instead a "rough" idea of what the balance is. For you, it is relief to find this article that is not yelling at you for something you don't want to do. You can show this article around to your critics and feel justified.
Now notice I didn't ask you to cut back or budget, I just said look at the overall picture. You're smart. You will notice if something is way off-like you are spending more on your cell phone and text messaging than on food. In the Wish List example above that person needed $833 a month to fund all the goals. It may mean trading off with some other expense. It may mean building the goals more slowly, or more quickly. It is in your control.
We thought such and such a deposit cleared and we could write a check. How many days does it take a check to clear? One to seven business days is usual, and in some extreme situations it may take eleven days.
Step Three-funding each goal
Okay, you have a plan, where is the money? What you are spending now? Try using my Lifestyle Analysis & Overview form seen here. This gives you a chance to review what you have been doing and make new, deliberate choices.