Kicking old School Habits

I’m a techie kind of guy, but I have a confession to make. Even as late as the year 2000, I used to partake in a painstakingly long and arduous task each week… balancing my checkbook. You know, recording every check written along with all debit card purchases I had made. I was determined to keep my checking account in balance and know where every cent was going. 

This task required even more time when I received my monthly account statements in the mail. Then I would sit down and fill in the blanks in the checkbook. I must have been crazy… or perhaps I didn’t know of a better way. At the time my wife and I had an account with a big-name bank, and we’d heard about online account management, but hadn’t tried it yet – mainly because we were worried about fees.

My wife was a school teacher, and because of that the bank kindly agreed to waive our monthly checking fee and allowed us to use online banking at no additional cost. And my world has been better for it ever since.  For the first year, I continued the task of balancing the checkbook; after all, I did pay bills with checks still at that time. Then, as time went on, I let go of balancing the checkbook completely.

Now, let me just say, I believe keeping track of your income and expenses is crucial to your financial stability and success. You have to know where you money is going and how much is coming in. That’s Financial Responsibility 101. So, why ditch the checkbook?

I discovered Online Banking and realized it does everything I’d been doing by hand, quicker and easier.

Yes, all of it. Purchases with a debit card? Yes. Withdrawal of cash? Yes. Checks written? Yes, albeit with a delay since the check has to clear first, but you also get to see a copy of the check. I now look back at all those wasted hours keeping my checkbook and think, “Why did it take me so long to realize this?”

Today, I can’t function without Online Banking.

Sure, I could keep a check register if I had to, but the point is, I don’t have to. I’m happy with the time I save and the convenience of knowing my transactions whenever I want, down to the last penny. And with new features that allow me to pay my bills online, track my spending trends and even create an easy-to-use budget, I wouldn’t want to live without it.

I can truly say it has improved my quality of life. That’s not to say I sit around all day using Online Banking. Far from it. But it allows me to be far more accurate and effective in managing my finances, and that’s what really matters to me. What about you? Have you jumped on the Online Banking bandwagon? Or are you still tracking all of your expenses and income with pen and paper? Do you still write checks?  That’s so 90s.

About the Author: Chad Scriber is the manager of eServices for Truliant.