Canadian Personal Finance Blog

So, I don’t think I really completely understand the ins and outs and the subtleties of Quicken Home & Business 2008, especially how it can control my spending. I do know how to get information out of it, that I can then interpret myself, but it is mostly “after the fact” data like how much I spent last year, how much I earned, how much my investments grew etc., . After initially looking at our spending habits for last year I had a huge panic attack about how we were grossly overspending, but then I wondered how much Income I had, looked at that and wondered how I had that much income, and then after looking at the “Balance Sheet” report, scratched my head some more looking at the value of my investments. Now I have to be careful with the investments, because those include the kids RESP monies, which skews the information a great deal (since that isn’t my money).

I have attached the report graph, without the key, but you can guess which one might be taxes easily, can’t you?

My Spending Graph

All of this being said, I think I can see where there can be some savings in the coming year, and that makes Quicken a useful tool for that, now if I could just figure out how to use the budgeting aspects to keep my spending habits in line, that would be even better!

Oh and remember to return those books to the Library, those late fees are going to kill you!

Yes, even well planned out lives have a few glitches, just like financial planning (just remember to get back to it, and remember what went wrong the last time). Learn from your mistakes and you’ll be much smarter!

I set up the coffee maker, I put the water in, I put the coffee in, I set the timer for the coffee to start making while I was out walking my dog, HOWEVER, I forgot to slide the basket back in! Luckily my coffee maker didn’t dump the water all over my counter (and I was able to reset it and I am now enjoying my coffee).

Planning is important, mistakes happen, but we are all human, so don’t get too upset about it, just learn!