expenses

Tracking Receipts Expenses

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Tracking Receipts Expenses 1

Despite knowing a lot about financial planning, and being a former financial advisor, I don’t always do the right thing for myself. Just like being a great dietitian doesn’t necessarily mean that you always eat the celery instead of the nachos. Receipt Apps Reviews However, nothing turns someone into a believer quite like a pain point. Over the last month or two, I’ve gone diving into my files and boxes of receipts to find things that I remember spending money on, just not the details. For example, my car’s brakes are messed up. Didn’t I just have the brakes done last fall? Nope, that was something to do with the differential, but according to this receipt, the dentist already charged me for that mouth guard thing. Oh, wait. No. That’s the wife’s retainer thing. It’s a good thing I’m polite on the phone or I would have started off some angry phone calls only to be shut down by providers I like, and want to not be upset with me. (Funny story: I once called the credit card company about a rather large charge that I didn’t make. The very nice customer service lady couldn’t find the charge I was …

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Big Budget Destroyers are Little Expenses

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Once upon a time, businesses sold you goods and services. You paid once and then used them until they wore out, broke, or no longer served your needs. Then, you went and bought something new. This works pretty good for customers, but can be hard on businesses who have to constantly come up with new ways to sell you something. These days, business has found a better way to consistently fund it’s profit and loss statement, but it may have ruined its customer’s budgets along the way. Little Subscriptions When you make your budget for the month, chances are you properly account for those standard monthly bills like electricity, phone, cable, HOA dues, car payments, rent / mortgage, water, heat, and so on. Chances are also good that these payments eat up a fair amount of your budget. But, are you accounting for all of those little subscriptions out there? If you try replacing any of those above services, chances they come with different monthly subscriptions. Cutting the cord on your cable company? Netflix, or Hulu Plus are monthly subscriptions. You can also subscribe to Amazon Prime on a monthly basis. If you want to replace your DVR, Tivo wants …

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Cell Phone Bills Too High for Budget

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The Wall Street Journal recently published an article about how cellphones are eating the family budget. It seems as though the idea and everything but the words were lifted from an earlier article in the Boston Globe. Whatever the source, this is something that I saw coming years ago as a financial planner, and now, it seems things are maybe worse than ever when it comes to your budget and your cell phone. Your Cell Phones, Your Budget When I was a Certified Financial Planner advising clients, one of the first steps (after signing them up as clients) was to review their budget. For the wealthy, a budget isn’t really all that useful or eye-opening, but for everyone else, a budget can reveal some very ugly truths. First, most people spend way more money each month on things than they think they do. Nothing is a bigger shocker than filling out a budget that includes everything you THINK you spend money on each month, and then sitting down with someone and matching that up to your bank and credit card statements to see what you ACTUALLY spend each month. Second, for most people, there actually isn’t much they can do …

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