Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I balance it so that I don't have to take the bank's word for how much money I have, and so that I don't write checks my bank may dishonor. I value my reputation and it's my job to behave so as to deserve it. In my case it is more important, because I collect coins. Coin dealers like cash, dislike credit cards, and if they know you, will take checks (personal, not cashier's). However, there's one rule: one bad check and you're marked lousy all over the place. I can go into a coin store two hundred miles to the south, mention a few local names and affiliations, and someone I've never met before will quite likely take a personal check. I like that a lot and it's worth ten minutes of monthly effort.
If other people don't want to keep track of their money, fine, long as they don't complain when their account gets screwed up and they have to take the bank's word as gospel because they have no competing documentation.
You don't have to balance to the penny to check and see if you've gotten ripped off.
I balance my checkbook and the family trust checkbook each month when I get the statements in the mail. It takes 5-10 minutes each. If there is an error, it takes longer waiting for the Liquid Paper to dry than it does to find the error. A pen and a calculator are all I need; Liquid Paper if I need to correct an error. No scrap paper or spreadsheet required.
I remember writing off a $0.03 error on my checkbook once. This may have been the only error I could not find in over 25 years. After my father died, I took over the family trust. There was an error of about $3 that I wrote off. I gave up trying to find it because the previous entries were barely legible.
I also pay my bills and the trust bills on the same day they arrive in the mail. I can usually get the bills paid while supper is cooking. If not, I eat and then finish the bills. Food always has priority in my life.
Old bookkeepers never die, they just lose their balance.
#1. Call the automated line, enter the requested identifiers, get your balance.
#2. Open your checkbook, subtract any outstanding checks from the BANK'S balance. The result should equal the balance in YOUR checkbook. This doesn't take any longer than logging into my account on line.
Easy Peasy.
I've never written off a discrepancy; probably because there weren't any on my part and when the bank was wrong, I could get it corrected on their end.
TIP: If there's an error that is divisible by 9, it's probably a transposition error.
I check my bank accounts online every few days. I know where my money goes. I don't have a budget per se. I know that if I spend a lot this month, I will be eating soup next month to balance it out.
Whenever I use my checkbook or ATM card I note it in my register on the spot. I don't have to spend hours balancing my checkbook. I just deduct the last transaction and know my balance.
You don't have to balance to the penny to check and see if you've gotten ripped off.
I one time had my account show up $20 low, despite balancing it five times with exhaustive fascist proofreading. No explanation could obtain except that the bank had somehow dropped $20 from my account. I called and walked them through it, and they gave me the $20. The next month, evidently their problem righted itself, because now I was $20 high. I called them to give it back. The following month, it was $20 low again.
If you don't balance to the penny, you give up the reassuring certainty that you and the bank agree. But if people are happy with lesser measures, I don't care; it's their money. If people want to trust a corporation to get everything right, I don't care; it's their money.
I am wondering more about the psychology of people who pull out their check book in a grocery store and let everyone wait behind them while they slowly start writing a check, expecting everyone to wait peacefully because they are dipshytes.
I want to shake them until their head spins and put them into a head lock. Such selfishness is unbelievable to me and it brings my blood to a boil, when I just have 3 items and need to wait 5 extra minutes because they are aholes.
oh-eve, I completely agree. Who even writes checks anymore? I almost never do. I mean, like, it's a once in a few years kind of thing and I'm like, "What is this, the stone age? A check?" Usually it's for something to do with my kids' school, and they take FOREVER to cash the darn thing. Infuriating.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TabulaRasa
For me, it's not just account balancing, it's many highly organizational, ultra detail-oriented things. I also don't really do checklists or to-do lists as a rule, only in isolated instances, am not generally ultra particular about how things get done method-wise , don't really do many things according to a template, have tried and tried to use planners (paper and electronic) for years, but abandon them a week in, etc.
I've known people who have elaborate, complex systems for keeping their pantry stocked, housekeeping schedules they don't deviate from, etc. Meh. Just not me.
This is a good post because from the standpoint of "the psychology of..." I mean I don't want to overthink what it means and I think people assume a lot. You would think, for instance, that someone like me who is very, very organized, would freak out if there was chaos in some area of life. Like if a plan went awry or the cat knocked something over and broke it or...chaos happened. Like we must be unable to cope, since we love perfect meticulous organization so much, and we must be really uptight and full of stress and not "laid back" because of how we live. I really don't think so. If anything I am drawn to chaos like a crow to shiny objects, because I want to get my hands on it and organize and fix it. There is a JOY in doing this, for me. I'm not stressed. I roll with life's punches pretty well. I just take pleasure in making things orderly. And it's always been that way for me.
So today is Halloween. When I was a kid, after trick or treating, I so looked forward to sitting down and emptying my bag onto a big table or even a clean floor, and sorting all the candy into categories. It gave me great pleasure to see it all organized, before I would eat a single piece. Why? I don't know. It just did. (EDIT: If I'd had the ability to make a spreadsheet and create a chart of how many pieces of chocolate to how many pieces of cheaper things like suckers and then done some analytics on what the assortment of candy over the span of ten years looked like compared to the local economic indicators... I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it, seriously. Bliss.)
I always put my things in all the same places. My keys are never lost. My hat hangs on this exact peg. If someone moves this or that knick-knack an inch to the left I will notice and move it back and wonder who was messing with my stuff (the cat.)
I have been chided for using the term "OCD" to describe this...it isn't, not really, and I know that. I know what true actual OCD is and I have compassion for those who have to deal with it. Not trying to be insensitive. It's just that the only other term I know of, "anal retentive" drives me up the wall because that is a word I don't want to use unless I'm talking about somebody's actual bunghole. And "meticulous" or "particular" don't quite encompass how it's a whole-life-habit for someone like me. So I say "OCD-ish" even though yes, I do know better.
I could just tell people I'm a Capricorn...? lol Apparently that is a typical Capricorn thing to do, create a whole system and live by it like it's a law of physics or something. Whatever, I guess.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
