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Is Your 2009 Goal to Better Monitor Your Cash Flow?

I've always believed that the top 3 New Year's resolutions are to:

1. Lose Weight

2. Stop Smoking

3. Get Organized

I help people with #3: Get Organized and what I believe will be resolution #4 this year: Monitor Your Money. The drivers may be recent job loss, salary reduction and no year-end bonus. No matter what the cause, it's time to organize your finances. There are lots of ways to reduce your spending (I know, I'm married to a Certified Financial Planner), but how can you monitor your savings and cash flow?

What is in your (and your spouse's) checking accounts and savings accounts? What are you credit card expenses? How much liquidity do you have? Are you consistently bringing in enough income to cover your expenses? It's a challenging time to get a loan or home equity line of credit approved.

Quicken software is the most popular tool on the market to help track and monitor your personal cash flow. Once your accounts are established in Quicken, you can run the Cash Flow Report showing your income, expenses, and the balances. By monitoring this report monthly, you'll know if your attempts to reduce your spending are effective. All of your expenses are broken into categories (e.g., Auto, Education, Housing) with more detailed reporting and drill-down capabilities.

posted on: 12/29/2008 8:30:00 AM by Heather Cocozza
category: Business

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Discuss This Post

by David Reddersen on 12/31/2008 12:08:55 AM:

Heather, Check out the latest thing. Account Aggregation. Mint.com is the most popular and supposedly the easiest interface. For those with security concerns there are 3 types: 1.) web server based, 2.) traditional stand-alone types (like Quicken, Quickbooks, MS Money) and 3.) Consumer driven (resides on PC with Pentagon-level encrypted "safe" on your PC to store account information, passwords, etc.). Numbers 1 and 3 are very cool in that they do not require hours of inputting data/transactions line-by-line. They "screen scrape" information from your actual online access accounts at various banks, credit card companies, mortages, investments, etc. 5 minutes to see EVERYTHING in one place. They are all pretty secure and safe, but personal preferences will determine the best fit. Try it... you'll love it!! Other links: *******yodlee.com (backend for mint), clearcheckbook.com, www.wesabe.com, www.nobosh.com (cool news aggregator), money dance, www.smartaboutmoney.org (non-profit financial education), www.money-hawk.com (self-made money blog), cashedge Inc. (other aggregators), money supermarket, accountunity.com (user-driven), Egg Money Manager, EmoneyAdvisor.com (rep driven custom-branded for clients. **** Questions: email me at [email protected]

by Heather Cocozza on 12/31/2008 9:09:51 AM:

Great comment. Agreed, there are many other emerging personal financial products on the market. It'll be interesting to see which ones are left standing 3 years from now. Thanks for the overview. Mint.com has recently crossed my desk.

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Use Your Space & Conquer Office Workflow

by Heather Cocozza

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About Heather:

Heather Cocozza, PMP, CPO® is a Professional Organizer who organizes and designs tailored home and office solutions. She is on the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO)-WDC Board of Directors 2009-2010 and is the owner of Cocozza Organizing & Design, LLC. Prior to her organizing career, Heather Cocozza worked 13 years at IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers as an ERP Project Manager and at times traveled extensively while her "virtual" twins were between the ages of 0 to 3.

Heather's Website:

CocozzaOrgDesign.com

Great Songs

"Takin' Care of Business" by Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Do Ya - Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)
I Got a Feeling - Black Eyed Peas
You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet - Bachman Turner Overdrive
Give a Little Bit - Goo Goo Dolls