As a single person, I thought if my checkbook was close to what the bank statement showed each month, that was “good enough.”  It often didn’t balance to the penny, but I knew approximately what I had to work with.  (Math was not my favorite subject in school). I had a checking account and a savings account.

Then, I got married.  There were two paychecks to work with.  And more bills to pay.  And my new husband was a Banker.  No more approximating (: 

At least he was there to help me with the balancing act (quite often).

Then, we had children.  The balancing act became more “complex” as we started saving money for several different groups of items at the same time: College, Retirement, Paying off our Mortgage ….

Then, my husband started his own business.  So, now there was personal checking, personal savings, business checking and business savings. Everything had to match “to the penny” EVERY MONTH! Yikes! How will that ever happen?  

Can you relate to any of these scenarios? And does it really matter?

Yes, it does.

For the following reasons:

1. What does each account tell you? It tells you if you have money left in your checking account.

(Banks do charge fees for being overdrawn! If you have set up a Sweep to automatically move money from savings to checking to cover expenditures, doesn’t that just keep allowing you to spend money not allocated in your budget?)

Each account also tells you if you are moving ahead with your savings. So, don’t you want your accounts to tell you the truth?  Senator Mike Braun, from Indiana, once said “The best remedy for anything is Sunshine and Transparency!”

• If one month does not balance and is not corrected, it will never balance after that.  It will only get worse!
• When all parts of our lives are in balance or in sync, we can move forward.  For me, not having my financial accounts balance is something that keeps me awake at night.  How about you?

If you find any one of these situations relatable, check out our Basic Budget under the Tools link today!