Balancing your checkbook

[rogersteciak]

I keep a check register and reconcile to the online banking site. I do this often because I enjoy it! But I hardly write any checks any more. It's all debit card transactions and online payments.

I do a similar thing. I keep a written check register and reconcile it against the online statement at my bank perhaps once a week just to be sure. I also check my credit card accounts online to make sure purchases have been recorded and my payments received (I usually write an electonic check as soon as I use a credit card instead of waiting for the monthly bill -- the pennies of interest lost is more than made up by the peace of mind that the transaction has been completed OK). But I do these things not because I enjoy doing them, but because I want the warm fuzzies that everything is in order so that I can then forget about them.

The idea of not keeping a running tab on one's cash balance in a checking account and having an independent way to verify its accuracy (even when it's the bank that is always right) is something I can't fathom. Being mildly obsessive-compulsive and harnessing that gift in a positive way can help one build wealth to FIRE.

 

[rs0460a]

I don't use the checkbook register, but I do use Quicken for both my and my son's (disabled) accounts. Since I'm named as the person to manage my son's SS disability account (and get audited every year), I do check on a weekly basis to post (from his bank account) transactions.

Since he does not live with me, but does use "countersigned checks" (he just fills in the amount and the payee) I'm able to see what he does financially in a "remote manner".

What I do once a week is look at the on-line bank images and post them to Quicken (which is used to fill out the annual spending report for the SS).

Last year, there was a check (image) that did not "jive" with the on-line bank statement. Found that due to his writing, the bank took a $100 check but withdrew $1,000 from his account (yes, his handwriting is poor).

Needless to say, this $900 error was corrected as soon as the bank was notified. Since he had ample funds, there was no problem with "bouncing", but it was still an "unusual error".

Whatever works for you, as far as reconciling. Just to show that sometimes errors (although not intentional) do get made.

- Ron

 

[Leonidas]

What's a "checkbook?"

Signed,

A Gen-X'er

Just call me a dinosaur.

Still writing checks but I've decided to go to electronic bill paying (just dragging my feet at the moment due to laziness). I'm not anti-technology with such things, just that when e-bill paying first came out I heard horror stories from people about errors being made and how frustrating it was to get them fixed. Decided that I would wait until it was fixed and then forgot about the idea for a while.

Most of my recurring bills are paid by check, and I'm pretty good at being able to time transfers so I keep money in the higher interest rate earning accounts up to just before the checks clear (hey, a penny here and a penny there add up after a while). But most of "the float" has disappeared with the changes they've made in check clearing and processing, and thus the decision to go to e-bill paying.

Before Quicken, my accounts were pretty simple and I could balance my checkbook in my head or on a piece of scratch paper. But that changed when I got serious about investing and the transactions grew in number and complexity. I became a Quicken user years ago (pre-Windows, DOS version) and later switched to MS Money. Balancing the checking account is not much effort using either of those programs.

 

[Razor]

I’m constantly amazed at the number of people who tell me that they either don’t know how to balance their checkbook or don’t bother to do it.

I am amazed that in this day and age of online banking, direct deposit and automatic bill paying that anyone still does balance their checkbook.

 

[HFWR]

What is it Tick Tock says... "I find your ideas intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newslettter."
I'd like to see the blueprints for that nuclear reactor conversion....
But I also still play my records...got John Prine on the turntable now in honor of the first peaches of the season.

Don't try this at home... You might "blow up your tv"! And your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore...

 

[Marquette]

I've only ever had one bank error. I wrote a check to my solo k for $5,000 and the bank cleared it for $50,000. And, it didn't take balancing my checkbook to spot the $40,000 overdraft thanks to my online banking ninja skills.

Been using a bank for the last 20 years and that was the first error I've ever seen.

 

[Spanky]

I have been getting lazy in balancing my checkbook. I simply download the statement from the bank's site and examine it.

 

[kcowan]

In both checks and credit card transactions, we just eyeball them monthly. We throw the receipts in a bucket in case there is a discrepancy. Have even stoipped recording the transaction number on online banking transactions because, after 10 years, they have never been wrong.

(Reformed Type A! Like others, the discrepancies always turned out to be our problem.)

 

[Gumby]

I keep the register updated as I write checks and make deposits, but I have not reconciled to the monthly statement in years.

 

[DragoMuseveni]

A checking account balance is an anachronism. There are better money management tools to use in 2008 such as cash-back credit cards.

I think I'm gonna stay up on this soapbox awhile.

I disagree. What if you have a check that isn't deposited for over a month? In the past year I have had two checks that weren't deposited for over a month after the payee received them. If I wasn't keeping my account balanced (with Quicken), I would have thought I had more money than I actually did.

Of course, if you have a cash cushion in your accounts then balancing your checkbook isn't as big an issue. But for me balancing my checkbook and thus eliminating bank fees was part of the reason that I now have a cash cushion in my accounts.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

I think I saw a checkbook in a museum in San Francisco once.

This reminds me of something that happened with my six year old son today. He's been using my computer to type from books he's reading into word docs. Today, when I suggested he could type with a typewriter, he said "Daddy, what's a typewriter?" So, I got the old typewriter out of storage and showed him that you could actually type words directly onto paper! (without sending them to the printer first.)

[For the record, I haven't paper or "quicken" balanced my checkbook in at least 10 years. I only write 1-2 paper checks/month and keep all balances on-line.]

 

[SecondCor521]

Now, here's a question: How many of you balance your money market account, or other non-standard account for which you have checks?

I balance all 46 of my currently active accounts using Quicken, but not all of those accounts have checkwriting privileges.

2Cor521

 

[retire@40]

I balance all 34 of my investment accounts at least quarterly using QuickBooks.

I tried using Quicken, but found it a little too fancy and cute for me.

 

[free4now]

No balancing for me... I used to do it religiously in school, but that was because I couldn't afford not knowing my exact balance down to the cent. Now that I've got a big cushion, there's no need for that level of detail.