So I have been kind of busy lately and was in the midst of paying the credit card bills. It is Friday today However, it is passed 5:00pm. Usually all of the banks are closed by now and every digital bill payment you make is delayed until Monday. Basically, if you had say a payment due this Sunday and say pay your bills today through online means you are semi out of luck.

Fortunately that isn’t the case here as all of my bills have an end of the month deadline. I guess in these cases it is better to have automatic deductions at times to ensure that your payments will be made on time. I always like to verify all of my money that is coming in and out though. As well, I usually try to maximize the amount of time my funds stay in the savings to earn more interest.

Is it worth it in the end? I guess from a dollar point of view in this one scenario it doesn’t really add up to much. But this habit makes me do the same in other aspects of financial management such as ensuring I understand and verify all of my expenses and savings where I am frequently on the ball with my money.

I guess like for a health nut while it may be easier and faster to just continually have someone deliver your meals to you knowing where your food comes from everyday and being proactive with it should generally translate to a healthier lifestyle overall.

I was talking to a person about car insurances today and it was kind of interesting as we talked about how even if you say never intended to drive a vehicle until way later it could be beneficial to get your license anyways. Reason being is that the insurance rates are heavily dependent on whether or not the person has been accident free for an X number of years.

So like in the case here with the insurance provider in this province getting your license and then simply leaving it dormant can make your reputation go higher in order to get the better rates. Kind of like a credit card in some ways I suppose where you would sign up for one and then just leave your balance at zero until you are ready to use it. In many ways it can make you look good in terms of being like a person who always pays off your balance and hence can get more credit while looking good from a credit a score point of view.

So you may have remembered a little over a month ago where I gave this hosting company a cancellation notice where it wasn’t until mid this month that the service was set to be renewed. Since I had no use for this particular vendor anymore, I decided to cancel it and gave them a lot of notice.

I also read all the horror stories and sure enough I received an automatic e-mail the other day saying that they have successfully billed my credit card. Funny thing is my cancellation support request ticket has been sitting unanswered since that time and I even replied to their billing e-mail about this.

Because of those horror stories I did indeed document everything too. I did take a peak at my statement online and the charge has not been posted as of yet and so I can’t initiate anything. The annoying thing about these is that you still have to pay the credit card bill and then wait for a possible month or so until you get reimbursed (Assuming everything is successful).

My credit card actually has an online form for it too which I haven’t really tried before. The last time I had to do something like this was almost 8 years ago using the traditional phone method. Will be an interesting saga unless that company fixes everything beforehand.

Usually the only type of people that I see that keep all of their receipts are say self employed people who are looking to write off expenses for when they do their taxes. Usually too, these types of people are good in managing their money as the mindset is that they want to have as much money left at the end of the day as possible and in a sense spending less overall.

One thing that is overlooked I’d say is actually keeping records of your purchases in general. Whether it is something as simple as buying apples at the grocery store or a making a large purchase at the electronics store, being able to review your purchases can do so much in helping you to manage your finances.

For myself I use the credit card a lot and so that is a great way for me to review my purchases as when it comes to paying the bills I can say “Those purchases was well worth” or other things like “Hmmm…I never realized 20% of my bill was for……I should try to find cheaper alternatives” and so fourth.

There is a good reason why people do it in business for example. Can you imagine how much of a wreck it would be if one didn’t keep track of their expenses? Personal finance is no real difference I’d say except that there is no immediate consequences to not keeping track of your spending.

If you don’t use the credit card a lot, then keeping receipts can be just as good. I have no doubt too that if you tend to spend money like crazy, just being able to look at your own expenses will encourage you to change your habits as after awhile it becomes a challenge too. Just like doing anything that affects you in a negative way, I’m pretty positive for example if there was a way for say a smoker to see how black their lungs are getting in real time they would definitely be inclined to change their habits.

I believe it all starts with self realization and habits. So if your goal was to manage money better, physically keeping track of your expenses consistently will go a long way.

So I tuned in to the Oprah show today as I was reading how there was a segment about financial management. Her guest speaker was Suze Orman who I think is a regular on that show. For the most part, it looked like it revolved around debt and how everyone in the audience had some form of bad debt. There were some crazy scenarios such as an accountant who was in tens of thousands dollars in debt. How does that happen huh?

One thing though, in the show they mentioned that you can get a copy of Suze Orman’s book “2009 Acton Plan” for free at the Oprah site until January 15th at http://media.oprah.com/sterm/action_plan_english.pdf. Haven’t read it myself, but figured others would be interested in it.

Some interesting things from the show was to see other people’s strategies when it comes to how much they think you should have in the savings before you can spend it on wants. In Suze Orman’s case, she said everyone should have about 8 times the amount in their savings compared to what they intend to spend. When I think about it, I use the same concept except the figure is a little different. But basically, the mentality is $100 in savings doesn’t mean you can say afford to buy that $100 item.

One point I heard in the show was how her “Action Plan” book was apparently titled that way as in her view 2009 is the make it or break it year when it comes to finances for people based on what happened in 2008. I was just thinking about that and in my opinion everyday should be a make it or break it day.

What I mean by that is everyday you should be doing something anyways when it comes to improving your financial situation. Whether it is finding ways to save or make more money, it should just be a part of your routine as oppose to waiting for a disaster to happen before doing something. Her plan was the following too for people to follow which made me think:

1) Don’t Spend Money For A Day

-For myself, I don’t restrict myself to not spending as I don’t like to spend money in general if there isn’t a good reason to do so.

2) Don’t Use a Credit Card For A Day

-Again, I’m one of those people who encourage the use of a credit card as much as possible due to the way you can earn free points and money. I always found that it is a great way for you to review your expenses each month too. Of course, like the first point I don’t simply buy things without a good reason. But if I had to buy say food everyday for some reason, then I would not hesitate to use the card if the option was available.

3) Don’t Eat At Restaurants For A Month

-I usually don’t dine at restaurants too much unless it is for a gathering or special occasion. Just from doings things like shopping and life experience from working at various jobs before, you develop this sense of “the value of a dollar”. Like wanting the best deals at a retail store for various items, many times dining out at a restaurant simply for a meal seems like a rip-off money wise compared to what you can buy at the supermarket and learn to do yourself.

So what does this all mean to me? Basically, it’s about knowing that you control your own finances and while your methods may be different from others, everyone shares a similar attitude I’d say which is the important point.