Wednesday, May 24, 2006

I'm a quicken fanatic...a confession

I just realized that I'm a Quicken fanatic!
Everything we spend ultimately ends up categorized in quicken.
Flexo found a definition of quicken fanatics and posted it his blog, here.

Unfortunately, I probably fall into that group (at least a little).

I am addicted to Quicken because:

  1. I like to manage my money tightly, keeping only enough cash in my operating accounts as necessary
  2. I like to know exactly what my expected cash flow is for the next 3 -4 months. This means I enter future transactions.
  3. I like to know exactly how much money I have.
  4. I like to know what I owe people.
  5. I like to see if I'm on track with my savings plan

In general, my wife think's I'm obsessive compulsive. I imagine the day I walk in a manner to precisely avoid the little cracks in the sidewalk will be the day she sends me to the doctor for the little white pills.

I suppose a good amount of my use with quicken is cashflow management. I enter scheduled transactions in advance and enter placeholder transactions for future spending; e.g. weekly groceries.

My biggest challenge and failure with Quicken is my categories. They've evolved over time and really need to be redone. Every time I budget, I find the categories unuseful. How would you get out of this situation?

Regards,

makingourway

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