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Hi all -
I don't currently keep "track" of expenses like many of you do. I pretty much save a certain amount a month, and then spend out of the rest. Sometimes I add more to savings, sometimes I take some out of savings for vacations (seldom for anything else). Sometimes I've taken out for PCS moves, but I'm reimbursed for those expenses, but I wonder sometimes if I'm putting everything back into savings that I've taken out. Somewhere however, I must be taking out a little more than I'm putting in, because if I divide the amount I've saved by the number of months I've been saving, I should be coming out with a number higher per month (because of returns) that I've saved over the years, but I'm not. So, I must be spending a little more somewhere.
When I first started saving, I was very anal about everything. Now, I don't keep so much track, because I feel much more comfortable with how much I've saved. However, I don't want to be too lax.
I use Ameriprise for most of my investments, but there are two things that bug me about the way they do their statements. The statements show total value of accounts one year ago compared to this year. This doesn't show how much I've invested over the year, or how much I've taken out; so basically I don't know what the totals are comparing how much the investments have grown, and how much I've put in (or taken out) during the past year.
What do you use to keep track? Are you using homemade spreadsheets or something like Microsoft Money? I want something easy to use, and don't want to spend a lot of money on something that will take up time and that I won't end up using.
Another thing that bothers me about my current statement is that it's not showing return on the funds! I have to go back and figure it out myself. Will the Money program help me do this?
Thanks
Michelle
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