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I'm curious to know if they are as religious about doing this as Gen X and older generations. Or do they slack off and do it only a couple times a year?
I'm not Generation Z (I'm 53) and I don't write checks. I login to my bank account and check my balance. I only do this about once every two weeks - basically, when I get a paycheck I have a glance at my account and pay bills. Just out of curiosity, I just stop-watched this, and it took 25 seconds. The bank probably has an app I could download onto my phone, but I just check from my laptop, as I've never had cause to check it when out and about. If I needed to for some reason, I could just check it without the app.
I don't use cash except in very rare occasions. Everything goes on plastic. And all my payments are electronic, either through a business's website or via Venmo. There's nothing to balance. Payments usually show up as at least pending within 24 hours, and my bank account shows both actual balance and pending balance.
I have three children who are in their mid-20s (Generation Zers/Millennials) and none of them have ever had checkbooks. My wife doesn't write checks. I notice my stepfather (70 years old) using cash, and I suppose he writes checks (he's a bit of a professed Luddite, anyway) and an elderly aunt in her 80s who uses them (I sometimes take her mail to the post office, and she's obviously sending checks for bills and charities). But I don't even see checks getting written anymore. I used to get annoyed, waiting behind someone in line who didn't ever reach for their checkbook until the cashier stated the amount due. Now, that never happens. I don't even know how many places even take checks anymore. Sometimes I notice NO CHECKS signs on the sorts of retail businesses that used to take them, but since I'm not concerned with it, I don't know how common that is.
I'm curious to know if they are as religious about doing this as Gen X and older generations. Or do they slack off and do it only a couple times a year?
They balance it right before they sit down for some freshly squeezed orange juice while reading the newspaper. Once the milkman arrives, they drive down to the local foundry for their shift in their El dorado.
I am a Boomer and while we log on daily we don’t balance a checkbook and very seldom write checks anymore.
The younger generations like we boomers have had the banking experience change due to technology and innovation.
I made deposits and withdrawals at the bank with a bank book which was stamped each time I came to the bank, I also used to open a Christmas club account each year. It used to be a pretty big affair to apply for a mortgage, now I see my younger employees applying and handling most everything over their smart phones. It is nothing now to close a refi at your local Starbucks with the mortgage representative. Days gone by.
Now with debit cards and credit cards which you are encouraged to use to earn points, we are turning to a cashless society and our smart phones are even being used to transition.
I do see one thing I don’t think is healthy when it comes to banking is these company’s offering to front you your paycheck a day or two early.
It’s easier to skip the balancing/keeping track of everything proactively when you aren’t doing at check to paycheck and the speed of checking clearing/ach makes it so the carry time isn’t anywhere near what it used to be
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Our adult millennial kids (3) have no check books. We still do but haven't written a check in many years. I pay all of our bills online, some with automatic payments. It's hard to imagine that any gen-Z would be using checks, never mind balancing the checkbook.
I have a couple of teenagers who I recently helped to open savings and checking accounts. They came with debit cards and no checkbooks. A couple of weeks later my wife asked me when they were getting their checkbooks. I said they weren't, there is no need, if they ever do need to write a check they can go to the bank and have them make up a cashiers check.
My wife claims that she still writes checks to people (I had no idea) and thinks the kids need checkbooks, so she went to the bank and had them order check books for them, which I'm guessing will most likely NEVER get used. In my opinion, real checkbooks are more of a liability then they are a help, especially for new account holders.
Anyways, what do you mean by "balancing a checkbook"? I wouldn't even know where to begin to do that. Are there people out there who actually keep track of every transaction that they make and write it down in a little book? Is this what you're talking about?
If you live paycheck to paycheck I can see where this might be necessary, but otherwise, as long as you're able to keep a little cushion of money in your account to ensure that there's more in there than what you spend each month, I don't see the need to keep track so closely.
I'm a boomer, and yes, that is what I do: keep track of every transaction and write it down in the checkbook. Each month, when the bank statement arrives, I go through it until all errors have been reconciled (Not all of the errors are my fault). After my father died, I did the same for my mother until she died 6 years later and I settled the estate.
You can use Excel instead of your checkbook. After I settled the estate, I made a number of Excel spreadsheets, including every checkbook entry from the time my dad died until the estate was settled. I handed out the smaller spreadsheets to my sister. The complete checkbook spreadsheet is 40 pages, but is available if requested.
I have never overdrawn a checking account in the over 40 years that I have had accounts.
I'm curious to know if they are as religious about doing this as Gen X and older generations. Or do they slack off and do it only a couple times a year?
What?
I'm a "Boomer" and I haven't "balanced my checkbook" in decades. There is no point. We get a running total online.
Hate to shock you, but I don't use carbon paper and White-Out anymore, either.
I'm a boomer, bank online, check the charges but no longer have to do the math every time. Yay.
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