New Year Open/Close

I went to the bank today to get some more check registers for my checkbooks.  At the beginning of every new year I like to start off with a new and fresh check register for the year.  I store the old ones for the prior year with my tax documents, as something might come up at a later date that could result in the need to search out a transaction.

I also start over with the recording of my transactions in an excel notebook spreadsheet.  There are many ways one can keep track of transactions.  Our bank has some awesome helps on the web attached to our accounts.  There are also great helps with microsoft money, quickbooks and a host of others.  I just like a simple excel spreadsheet using the notebook pages feature for each month of the year and then a summary page at the end.

However you decide to account for your spending over the year, the important thing is that you do something regularly.  I just set up some columns for wages and other receipts received over each month on the left.  Then a date column and an itemization column.  Then several columns to the right such as: auto, contributions, eating out, food, gifts, housing, medical, miscellaneous, phone, savings and transfers.  Then I use the 'sum' feature to total all the transactions for the month.

The important aspect of tracking financial transactions regularly is that you can see where the money goes each month and then through the year.  Financial summarizing is sometimes painful.  Looking over my records I see I spent too much money on our mountain house fixups.  So, I will need to cutback in 2014, or find some other ways to fund the fixups.  Also, the cell phone bill needs some attention.

Taking some time each month and then at the end of the year to see where the money is coming from and going to is very important to good financial health.