On Feb 6, 2009, at 1:45 PM, Mark Hall wrote: > OK, I understand the design there, but cannot agree that a running > balance relative to transactions is "not correct". > > A running balance is useful for posting future dated bills and > transactions and seeing immediately when the account balance might > need attention, especially if there are transfers between checking > accounts and credit cards that are future dated. Sure, you might argue > this should be taken care of via the cash allocation and buckets, but > that's quite a workflow leap for someone coming from 10 years of MS > Money or Quicken. > > Perhaps I am old fashioned, but I work for an investment bank on the > balance sheet and risk side, and cannot imagine using a financial tool > that will not tell you at a glance your real and value balance, at any > point in time. It'd also make trouble shooting missing items a lot > easier, especially just after a import at the start of migrating to > Moneywell. > > Not sure if I am sounding inflexible here, perhaps my professional > background is interfering with my home finances, but I have never been > overdrawn on my checking, mainly because I use this method.
Hi Mark, The reason a running balance can be misleading is that transactions throughout a day at a financial institution can be in a different order than those in your personal register. The running balance will look very different if the order is not perfectly matched. What truly matters is the end of day balance based on the close of business for that institution. Here's another change in perspective: I'm trying to get people to stop staring at their bank registers to see if they have cash to spend. This is a trap that may not have tripped you up but for those of us who are less disciplined and less organized, it's a killer. With the envelope budgeting method, you are asked to allocate your income to buckets based on a spending plan and then only spend what you have in each bucket. This allows you to remain more disciplined because if your dining out bucket is empty, you can't go out to eat unless you decide to sacrifice another expense and have money in that bucket to move over to your dining bucket. This is not necessarily a financial tool that works for everyone. It is very much different than what many of us are used to but sometimes different is simply better. Peace, Kevin Hoctor [email protected] No Thirst Software LLC http://nothirst.com http://kevinhoctor.blogspot.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "No Thirst Software User Forum" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/no-thirst-software?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
