We use quicken for record keeping been using it since it came out years ago. Everything is in a category so we know were we spend the $$$ .We look at it at the end of every year to see how foolishly we are spending  our retirement $$$ but as long as there is a couple of bucks  left over at the end of every month I figure we are doing OK.

Got me curious so I looked at Quicken for  last months numbers  February 2017 3,742 all categories all expenses.  I was pleased to see that "Entertainment"  was our 2nd highest expense. That is the way retirement income should be spent.

Edited March 16, 2017 by richfaa

  On 3/16/2017 at 9:54 AM, richfaa said:

We use quicken for record keeping been using it since it came out years ago. Everything is in a category so we know were we spend the $$$ .We look at it at the end of every year to see how foolishly we are spending  our retirement $$$ but as long as there is a couple of bucks  left over at the end of every month I figure we are doing OK.

Got me curious so I looked at Quicken for  last months numbers  February 2017 3,742 all categories all expenses.  I was pleased to see that "Entertainment"  was our 2nd highest expense. That is the way retirement income should be spent.

 I used Quicken a number of years back and liked it. It just seems now that a simple app on the phone works well and is handy to log things as they happen while out and about, then I transfer those to my spreadsheet at the end of the month.

 Our entertainment expenses always seem on the very low end but we tend to do things that a low or no cost I guess like hikes, bike rides, Pickleball, ect. It all works.  

With Quicken the transaction is recorded as soon as it is made usually within a minute or two. How the individual spends their $$ is a personal choice there is no incorrect way.

We use the savings goals in Quicken to earmark monthly budget amounts. Any unused amount builds up and the result is a cushion for future use.

For example, every month X $ goes into a camping fund. As we pay for camping expenses, we withdraw the expense from the savings account. We try to budget a bit more than we actually anticipate spending, accumulating a nice cushion in the process.

Once you get a system down, this only takes a few minutes per day to keep up.

Every Friday I pull out X $ for groceries, dining out, misc and it has to last until the next Friday.

We have S+B so we do this for real estate taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities.

Edited August 21, 2017 by ToddF

  On 8/21/2017 at 6:51 AM, ToddF said:

Once you get a system down, this only takes a few minutes per day to keep up.

My intermediate accounting professor used to tell us that the key to any money management problem was to keep accurate & detailed records so that you always know where all money came from and where it went. Being retired it is very easy for us to know where our money comes from, but tracking where it goes takes a little bit of effort. We keep all receipts and record them every couple of days. You should keep the miscellaneous or unknown total to less than 5% and my goal for that is 1%. I began doing that about 15 years before we retired and we were amazed how much easier reaching financial goals became.