How To Manage Your Account

How to Organize and Manage Your Bank Account

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Life would be perfect if money grew on trees, but not all dreams can turn into reality. If you want to take more control of your bank account and track how you spend your money, this is the article for you.

Steps

Transform a notebook or any file-process idea to keep all of your tracks organized.
Make columns (left to right headings) of Date, Where I Went, Amount Spent, Amount Deposited, Cash, Check, or Card, and Account Total.
Take the most current balance of your account & use it as the starting point. Call your bank for the most updated amount. For people that have been keeping receipts and bank statements, subtract all receipt totals from the most recent bank statements total.
Continue Read the "Tips" section for more information about it.
Refer to the image provided to see a complete format of what it should look like.

Tips

For the first transaction that you put down, either add (deposit) or subtract (spent) from your current balance (Step 3). This will become your first insert for Account Total. For anything afterwards, do the same as above.
Each row (lines that go up and down) should have the following:
- Date: Write down the date of when you spent or put money into your account.
- Where I Went: Put down either the specific place you went (for example, McDonalds) or a brief description of the activity (for example, ate lunch w/ friends & split bill).
- Amount Spent: Relevant/related to any money taken out of your account. This does *not* include any change on hand or if you spent money that was found on the ground right then & there.
  - Any bills that you have established "direct pay" (or a system which automatically takes money out of your account on a yearly, semiyearly, monthly, semimonthly, or weekly basis) needs to be noted as a subtraction.
- Amount Deposited: Any money that was put into your account. Examples are work checks and birthday money.
  - For Savings accounts that have interest rates, you must know the exact date routine & calculate them into your current total for it to be current in your tracks.
- Cash, Check, or Card: Jot down how it was paid with or how much cash was deposited.
  - Cash: If you took out from an ATM (Automated Teller Machine) or from the direct bank.
  - Check: If you have used or deposited a check amount into the account.
  - Card: If you used a card (for example, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, CheckCard, etc) on a transaction.
If you have liquid assets worth $300,000 or more then banking with a Private Bank is the best option Private Banking ensures that your assets are managed and protected professionally. A private Bankers role is to advise clients on matters such as: Wealth Management, Inheritance, Tax Planning and Asset Protection.

Warnings

You need to have a strong habit of keeping tabs of your account. If you tend to forget about things, this may not be the right idea for you; however, you can always use the bank or bank statements as a resource.
Transactions may take time to "appear" in your account (the waiting period), especially if it occurred on a Friday or before a Federal holiday.

Things You'll Need

Bank account
Basic math skills or calculator
The requirement of remembering to note every transaction

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