Aaron likes to float, kite, and bounce. and i say, what fun! three checking accounts, now that’s a man who is serious about his bank float. me? well, i keep it a little more simple, infact i’d have to say i’m into the zen of banking.
one checking account. no check register. no written or electronic balance-keeping at all. a dozen or so automatic debits, an atm card, and checks, both paper and electronic, used at different times to achieve different desired results. i only open my bank statements to see if they’ve raised my overdraft enablement.
i log on to my account every day or so, view the balance, the cleared items (oh! right, i remember now), and look at the difference between ‘available’ and ‘ledger’ balance. from there i make some estimated projections, always remembering to breathe. breathe. that’s it. innnnnnnn. ooooooouuut.
i do this calmly, meditatively. if i ever follow temptation towards excess, it’s straight from there to hell — that overdraft enablement means nothing bounces, up to a goodly amount. it means i can go to the atm and withdraw cash when my balance is already negative in the mid-three figures. twenty-one dollars per overdrawn item paid. ohmmmmmmmmm.
and i never bounce checks, unless i mean to — for instance at the beginnings of some months, it’s necessary to write myself a rent loan. and i do. cover it a day later, pay the O/D fee without complaint. i never waste an O/D fee. i go ahead and go for it, that’s always been my philosophy — don’t go bouncing a silly ten dollar check, oh no. make it a good big one, then it doesn’t feel like such a waste.
i almost feel sorry for people who don’t have to scrape and juggle and kite and (selectively) bounce. where’s the challenge in having money? isn’t it better to run out now and again, and have to print your own out of the ephemera that is bank float, for a few thrilling days? ok maybe not. humor me here, k?
we went to the same school of finance, kd.
I feel better about myself now.
see, i always thought i was kind of an aberration, i mean, that’s the impression i tend to get from the tellers when i’m trying to cash a check on insufficient funds so i can cover a cash advance and i’ll be right back and put the money back, i just need the it for about 10 minutes … of course this is perfectly normal! stop looking at me like that!
No, bank float is a way of life around here.
Of course, when it fails, you end up $400 in the hole in a very, very short amount of time. Which is where we are now.
We’re still going to the beach on Monday. I don’t care. I desperately need a damn vacation.
Hey kd, can I borrow some money?
Oh,KD, maybe its a good thing I didn’t spend so much time with you in Vegas.
You should see what I did to our household finances. Everything color coded, all accounts meticulously entered and tracked in Quicken. Two back up disks, no less. A list of all account numbers /where held in the safe… another copy in the safe deposit box. Palm Pilot / Day Runner and Cell Phone all have synched bill payment schedules.
On the other hand, can you come here and teach me to unclench? *grin*
it’s all in the breathing, Tam. balance comes from within, not from Quicken
I knew there was more than one reason I liked you. We clearly do our banking at the same place.
hmmm… i DO use a checkbook register but i have no idea how much i actually have. i haven’t balanced my checkbook in a at least a year…, i just round every debit/check/withdrawal/deposit up to the next dollar. it’s SOOO much easier to add and subtract
i used to stress over that ‘lost’ 7 cents… it is good to live unclenchingly…
its more fun to just guess….
I like going to the grocery store, filling up the cart, letting everything get entered, handing over my coupons, sliding my value card and then swiping my atm card.
Just about every time I have this moment where I try to remember if something was supposed to clear that day.
Its like a slot machine.
Fun fun fun!
the handiest part about the online balance is that you can look at ‘available’ vs. ‘ledger’ and see if there are some outstanding debits. that are about to go through. mine right now reads a spiffy -77.something, but the thing that makes it minus won’t clear till tomorrow, however the rent check will, so it will be *really* minus for the period of time between midnight when these things clear, and the time the paycheck goes in.
of course, if any one other thing hits at that same time, the dastardly fiends at the bank will clear the rent check first and *then* the others, for more fees. and if you call them on that, they deny it. those bastards.
eeeeep!
oh, fie! me and my big mouth…LOL!
and now… i’m wondering how RICH i really am… yuh. right.
I let Francisco handle the money. Because I’m just hopeless when it comes to it. He’s a totall genius, though. I’m making around $20k LESS a year than I was in Alabama, and I somehow have more money–I don’t know how he does it. It’s like magic or something. LOL
I just hate giving the bank my money. I *&@%ing hate giving the bank my money.
They charge you for checks.
They charge you for using the ATM.
They charge you if you overdraft.
They charge you if someone else’s check bounces in your account.
They charge you to trasnfer funds.
They charge you for international wires.
They charge you.
They *&#@ing charge you.
When my wife puts us in the hole, I get livid. That’s money we don’t have now. And when you get the check to put your head above water, you have that much less before the bank is taking its pound of flesh.
I hate banks. I hate banks. I hate banks. I hate banks.
I HATE BANKS.
I subscribe more to kd’s zen type of banking, but I do try to keep up with how far in the hole I am using money managing software. As far as rounding off your checks to the next dollar, I read about folks who do that and end up with large sums of money at the end of the year, money they would have spent otherwise. So Ratty’s the person we need to be hitting up for money.