"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Money Management Software

I've been looking for an intuitive and comprehensive, simple!, money management application that could give me a realistic portrait of my financial situation. I think I may have found my home in Cashbox (for OS X.4).

Much as I like the fancy-schmancy software with a million bells and whistles, I haven't had any success with them since I haven't demonstrated the dedication needed to make such software work for me. What I like about Cashbox is that I can manage money by account rather than by transaction category. So, I sat down and totaled up all my accounts, right down to my pig (spare change collector) and Canadian Tire money!

At the end of the day, I can simply hit reports to see how my global financial situation has changed, for better or worse. If I feel like being a bit fancier, I can even give my transactions labels to see how much I'm spending on rent, chocolate, health, beer, my nails, taxes, etc.

One thing I like is that I can enter transactions before they happen, so I can enter a paycheque and then immediately allocate money to my fixed expenses so I know how much I have left to 'play' with until the next paycheque.

The ultimate benefit is seeing my actual net worth rise and fall as I invest, save, spend, and rack up debt. It makes finding a penny very exciting!

Let's see how long I manage to make this software work for me. :-)

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