It seems like a world away, but it was just a few weeks ago that I was taking a riverside nap in Germany! When I travel, it’s so easy to feel like I am a million miles away from the reality of bills, work and the normal daily responsibilities. After my nap I found the closest internet café – primarily to email my friends and family to let them know how ridiculously relaxing my vacation was.
But when I opened my Yahoo account, I had an alert from Truliant. “Your checking account balance has fallen below $200.00.” I was shocked.
When I made an ATM withdrawal earlier that day, I knew that 100 Euros was more than 100 dollars, but apparently I didn’t know exactly how much more! Luckily I had set up an alert through FinanceWorks to notify me when my balance got that low.
FinanceWorks is a pretty amazing program that allows you to manage all your accounts with any financial institution from anywhere. All you need is a computer, and best of all… it’s free! There are a number of features available, but I have a few favorites:
Budget Goals
You set the categories and limits to be budgeted and FinanceWorks tracks them for you. All you have to do is login to see how much you have left to spend for the month.
See Where Your Money Is Going
Select a date range and view a pie chart that includes the total amount spent in different categories.
Alerts and Notifications
Receive email reminders when your bills are due or ask to be notified immediately when your balance falls below a certain amount.
I like to think I’m good at keeping track of all these things myself, but in all honestly, I’m finding that I rely on this program. It gives me a crystal clear picture of exactly where my money is going and it’s a tool that I think you would find to be extremely helpful.
