Trouble is, I don't need all that. All I want is a way to track my money easily, with no other bells and whistles, and a way to access that online so that I can view it from anywhere. The best way I found to do that is through Google Docs and Spreadsheets. I created a simple spreadsheet to track my bank accounts, that does everything I used to do with MS Money. It has the date of each transaction, the title and amount, a little field for memos, and a running balance. What more do I need? Keep it simple.
但問題是,那么多的功能我根本用不著,我所想要的不過是找到一種易操作的方法,來記錄我資金的流向,不需要花里胡哨,只要能兼具聯(lián)網(wǎng)功能就可以了,因為這樣我就能隨時隨地監(jiān)控了。通過實踐,我發(fā)現(xiàn)谷歌文檔和電子表格有我想要的功能。以往需要微軟理財通才能實現(xiàn)的賬戶追蹤,如今僅需要建立一個電子表格就可以了。它能記錄每筆交易的日期、內(nèi)容和數(shù)額,還可以添加備注,以及顯示收支狀態(tài)。一切我想要的功能它都有,我還在奢求什么?保持簡單最好。
Pay savings and debt first
存錢還款是第一位的
When you sit down to pay your bills (I do them all online), make the first bills you pay your savings transfer and your debt payments. If not, if you pay them last you'll often end up shortchanging them. But if you pay them first, you'll make sure you still pay your rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries and gas...so you'll just cut back on other spending.
當你開始支付賬單時(我通常在線完成),請務(wù)必確保你把儲蓄轉(zhuǎn)存和債務(wù)還款排在首位。如果你不這么做,而拖到最后才轉(zhuǎn)存和還款……那么,你會發(fā)現(xiàn)你沒法完成你的預定存款額或還清欠款。但如果你做的第一步就是轉(zhuǎn)存和還款,那么你會精打細算以確保留有足夠的錢來支付房租或抵押貸款、水電費、 雜貨和燃氣費用……從而自然而然地削減其他不必要的開支。