Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)

[mspym]

I just bought a house in a different country/currency with half the money coming from my partner's accounts. Now I have to work out how to reflect this in my gnucash accounts.
UPDATE: sorted this out after an hour of frowning at a spreadsheet and my laptop. New asset type! Partner equity as opening balance! Everything balances.

[Plina]

I had set most of my bills to be paid the 27th but I was in a conference in the beginning of the week and was too tired to figure out all the steps of paying myself a salary with expenses included the 25th so I made a transfer from another account and paid myself a salary the 27th instead. Problem solved.

[Loren Ver]

DH needed some pavers to put under his metal art in the yard so we went to a hardware store.  They would have to be in a particular size range and thickness so it couldn't be a craigslist free pickup.  Maybe we haven't been for a bit but all the pricing for the blocks was done by QR codes.  There were quite a few blocks that would work, but DH has a flip phone, which does nothing with QR codes....     

[LennStar]

DH needed some pavers to put under his metal art in the yard so we went to a hardware store.  They would have to be in a particular size range and thickness so it couldn't be a craigslist free pickup.  Maybe we haven't been for a bit but all the pricing for the blocks was done by QR codes.  There were quite a few blocks that would work, but DH has a flip phone, which does nothing with QR codes....   

Just learn how to read them.

Is that even legal?
If it is, ask the store guys. If enough people do this, maybe they get back to human readable signs if they want humans to read it.
btw. I would not be surprised if you either need an app that logs what you buy and adjusts prices (upwards of course) or a website that tries the same.
You just bought a big $item and 2 hours later you are checking the price for screws? Well, you certainly need them now, and won't drive around miles and miles to get them a little bit cheaper, right?

[GreenSheep]

DH needed some pavers to put under his metal art in the yard so we went to a hardware store.  They would have to be in a particular size range and thickness so it couldn't be a craigslist free pickup.  Maybe we haven't been for a bit but all the pricing for the blocks was done by QR codes.  There were quite a few blocks that would work, but DH has a flip phone, which does nothing with QR codes....   

A lot of restaurants seem to have started this. We don't go out much, but we've been to two lately where there was a (gosh, "server" just sounds awful, but waiter/waitress doesn't seem much better...??), but they only came over to the table to tell us to use our phones to see the menu via a QR code! The alternative was to look up their menu on their website. So I asked for their WiFi password... and they didn't have public WiFi. Another reason to just cook/eat at home. I don't know what we would have done if at least one of us hadn't had a smartphone and actually had it in our pocket.

I read an article about the fact that we humans are starting to miss out on those non-friend but "see the same person every day/week/whatever" types of interactions, like the employees at your favorite restaurant, the barista at your local coffee shop, the grocery store cashiers, etc. Those people you recognize and exchange pleasantries with even though you don't really know them. Now it's just computers.

[SquarePeg]

Being a paranoid computer guy, my problem with QR codes is that they could lead anywhere -- a porn site, a scammer's page, or even a malware/drive-by download thing that could hack my phone.

Are QR codes safe?

Attackers can embed malicious URLs containing custom malware into a QR code which could then exfiltrate data from a mobile device when scanned. It is also possible to embed a malicious URL into a QR code that directs to a phishing site, where unsuspecting users could disclose personal or financial information.

Because humans cannot read QR codes, it is easy for attackers to alter a QR code to point to an alternative resource without being detected. While many people are aware that QR codes can open a URL, they can be less aware of the other actions that QR codes can initiate on a user’s device. Aside from opening a website, these actions can include adding contacts or composing emails. This element of surprise can make QR code security threats especially problematic.

A typical attack involves placing malicious QR codes in public, sometimes covering up legitimate QR codes. Unsuspecting users who scan the code are taken to a malicious web page which could host an exploit kit, leading to device compromise or a spoofed login page to steal user credentials. Some websites do drive-by downloads, so simply visiting the site can initiate a malicious software download.

Mobile devices, in general, tend to be less secure than computers or laptops. Since QR codes are used on mobile devices, this increases the potential risks.

https://usa.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/what-is-a-qr-code-how-to-scan

[BicycleB]

Even in Colombia, QR codes to read menus is a thing.

[ixtap]

Between clearing out the cupboards/freezer and a trip to Costco, I haven't been spending enough at the grocery store to get a good discount on gas.

[talltexan]

I finally had to take the fall for a big fill-up over the weekend, but my wife was in the car without me, and she agreed to a car wash that knocked $0.05/gal off of the price. How did car washes break the ten cent barrier?

[ixtap]

I finally had to take the fall for a big fill-up over the weekend, but my wife was in the car without me, and she agreed to a car wash that knocked $0.05/gal off of the price. How did car washes break the ten cent barrier?

I was able to get 0.50/ gallon on Sunday, but it said I had nothing left for June, and there is a lot of June left!!

[talltexan]

Even more than shrewd financial management is my attempt at helping my wife by filling up our car pre-emptively, so that she never has to spend mental energy even pondering our gas situation in that car.

[SwordGuy]

Even more than shrewd financial management is my attempt at helping my wife by filling up our car pre-emptively, so that she never has to spend mental energy even pondering our gas situation in that car.

Reminds me of this story.

Back when my wife and I got serious about budgeting and saving, we started working to get a handle on our actual spending so I could make a realistic budget going forward.

I asked my wife to tell me when she filled up the car and how much she spent doing it.

Then, I kept her car filled for the next 3 months.    Every two weeks I would ask her about filling up her car for the budget info.

She's way smarter than me so I only get to prank or outsmart her about once a decade, but this one was a classic.

[BicycleB]

Even more than shrewd financial management is my attempt at helping my wife by filling up our car pre-emptively, so that she never has to spend mental energy even pondering our gas situation in that car.

Reminds me of this story.

Back when my wife and I got serious about budgeting and saving, we started working to get a handle on our actual spending so I could make a realistic budget going forward.

I asked my wife to tell me when she filled up the car and how much she spent doing it.

Then, I kept her car filled for the next 3 months.    Every two weeks I would ask her about filling up her car for the budget info.

She's way smarter than me so I only get to prank or outsmart her about once a decade, but this one was a classic.

lol

[Loren Ver]

Haven't come across QR codes at food establishments yet, maybe we don't go to enough trendy type places (or enough various places).   Another thing to not look forward to.  I have a feeling we will be a get up and leave family. 

Also not thrilled about the places going to the pay by phone only options.  Yeah, not going to happen.  We haven't encountered it, but have heard about it in some larger cities. 

Slowly being phased out of society. At least we are safer from the malware :D.

Loren 

[Dollar Slice]

Also not thrilled about the places going to the pay by phone only options.  Yeah, not going to happen.  We haven't encountered it, but have heard about it in some larger cities. 

NYC passed a law banning this - all businesses have to accept cash by law now. It was becoming a not-so-subtle way to discriminate against certain kinds of people that they didn't like in their stores, e.g. a homeless person begging for change and coming in to buy a cold drink or a hot coffee when they had a couple of bucks. Never saw pay by phone only but there were quite a few doing cashless.

Lots of QR code menus though, it started as a pandemic thing so everyone is not handling the same menus over and over. But I've never run into a place that wouldn't bring you a paper one if you ask.

[LennStar]

I finally had to take the fall for a big fill-up over the weekend, but my wife was in the car without me, and she agreed to a car wash that knocked $0.05/gal off of the price. How did car washes break the ten cent barrier?

I was able to get 0.50/ gallon on Sunday, but it said I had nothing left for June, and there is a lot of June left!!

Can someone explain that for a German? I am totally confused by whatever strange ritual that implies.
Whenever I went to a car wash, it cost a lot of money and certainly didn't lower the price of anthing, be it 5 or 50 cent.

[ixtap]

I finally had to take the fall for a big fill-up over the weekend, but my wife was in the car without me, and she agreed to a car wash that knocked $0.05/gal off of the price. How did car washes break the ten cent barrier?

I was able to get 0.50/ gallon on Sunday, but it said I had nothing left for June, and there is a lot of June left!!

Can someone explain that for a German? I am totally confused by whatever strange ritual that implies.
Whenever I went to a car wash, it cost a lot of money and certainly didn't lower the price of anthing, be it 5 or 50 cent.

Two common gas discounts are:
- you earn points at the grocery store that translate to a discount per gallon of gas.
-a gas station associated with a car wash offers you a discount per gallon if you pre pay the car wash at the pump.

The two poster you quote were each referring to a different one of these options.

[Loren Ver]

Also not thrilled about the places going to the pay by phone only options.  Yeah, not going to happen.  We haven't encountered it, but have heard about it in some larger cities. 

NYC passed a law banning this - all businesses have to accept cash by law now. It was becoming a not-so-subtle way to discriminate against certain kinds of people that they didn't like in their stores, e.g. a homeless person begging for change and coming in to buy a cold drink or a hot coffee when they had a couple of bucks. Never saw pay by phone only but there were quite a few doing cashless.

Lots of QR code menus though, it started as a pandemic thing so everyone is not handling the same menus over and over. But I've never run into a place that wouldn't bring you a paper one if you ask.

Interesting and a good move.  I have a friend that is very well to do, but is mostly cash only.  She doesn't want to be tracked based on her purchases (also not a big smart phone user).  We use to go out to eat quite a bit when we worked together.  She liked casual dining places and they liked their pay at table kiosks.  She would put them face against the wall first thing and tell the servers she was cash.  Getting checked out of those places could be a hassle though, since coming back to the table at the end was now out of their usual rotation. 

Loren

[Taran Wanderer]

Okay, this is a real MPP, and I need some advice…

How many accounts do you all have?

We have several dozen accounts - checking and savings for us and for our kids, a handful of credit cards, 529s, 401k’s, Roth IRAs, traditional IRAs, pensions, home, rentals, mortgages, business investments, investment club… the list goes on. The monthly reconciliations are a huge hassle. What sort of setup do you all have for your accounts? How did you pare them down? How do you manage them all?

tl;dr:  we have so much money in so many places that it’s a pain to manage. Woe is me…

[secondcor521]

Okay, this is a real MPP, and I need some advice…

How many accounts do you all have?

We have several dozen accounts - checking and savings for us and for our kids, a handful of credit cards, 529s, 401k’s, Roth IRAs, traditional IRAs, pensions, home, rentals, mortgages, business investments, investment club… the list goes on. The monthly reconciliations are a huge hassle. What sort of setup do you all have for your accounts? How did you pare them down? How do you manage them all?

tl;dr:  we have so much money in so many places that it’s a pain to manage. Woe is me…

My three 20-somethings have around 18 or so that they track themselves.

I use Quicken to track my 44 accounts.  Most of those, most of the time, work with Quicken's One Step Update feature, so transactions are downloaded and reconciled whenever I press the button, which is usually daily.  It also updates stock prices.

I do have a few of those 44 accounts that require manual intervention for various reasons.  The 529 investments are in some 529-specific investments which don't have tickers, so I update those asset values manually every so often.  I can't figure out how to get my Fidelity Visa credit card to work with One Step Update, so I manually download and import those transactions every so often.  My house account I just update to the value periodically.

At the moment I elect not to pare down any of the 44 accounts, because they each have a purpose.  I do periodically review and see if I can pare down.  I'll be able to get rid of about 4 college accounts in the next several years when my two youngest finish their degrees.

I agree it's a hassle.  I couldn't manage this many accounts without Quicken.

The younger cool kids might recommend Mint or Personal Capital and the like.

[Morning Glory]

Okay, this is a real MPP, and I need some advice…

How many accounts do you all have?

We have several dozen accounts - checking and savings for us and for our kids, a handful of credit cards, 529s, 401k’s, Roth IRAs, traditional IRAs, pensions, home, rentals, mortgages, business investments, investment club… the list goes on. The monthly reconciliations are a huge hassle. What sort of setup do you all have for your accounts? How did you pare them down? How do you manage them all?

tl;dr:  we have so much money in so many places that it’s a pain to manage. Woe is me…

I have 25 active accounts in mint (this includes things like store-specific credit cards and my kids' 529's). Husband probably has another 15-20. I don't know if married people usually share a mint/PC account or have separate ones.

[GuitarStv]

I consolidated all of our bank and investment accounts down a few years back.

My wife and I have:
- a joint chequing account
- Individual investment brokerage accounts (RRSP, TFSA)
- an RESP savings brokerage account for our son's education
- a joint investment brokerage account for overflow

So, seven accounts total.  It has made money management much simpler.

[NorthernIkigai]

Okay, this is a real MPP, and I need some advice…

How many accounts do you all have?

We have several dozen accounts - checking and savings for us and for our kids, a handful of credit cards, 529s, 401k’s, Roth IRAs, traditional IRAs, pensions, home, rentals, mortgages, business investments, investment club… the list goes on. The monthly reconciliations are a huge hassle. What sort of setup do you all have for your accounts? How did you pare them down? How do you manage them all?

tl;dr:  we have so much money in so many places that it’s a pain to manage. Woe is me…

I only keep track of those accounts that are relevant for our stash: a couple of brokerage accounts, a couple of cash accounts, a fund portfolio, spouse’s little hobby crypto account, etc. And even those, only once per quarter.

All the other ones (our daily groceries etc. account, the kids’ accounts, money set aside for holidays, and so on) are not part of the stash as they are earmarked for other things, so they don’t need any reconciling.

[dragoncar]

Okay, this is a real MPP, and I need some advice…

How many accounts do you all have?

We have several dozen accounts - checking and savings for us and for our kids, a handful of credit cards, 529s, 401k’s, Roth IRAs, traditional IRAs, pensions, home, rentals, mortgages, business investments, investment club… the list goes on. The monthly reconciliations are a huge hassle. What sort of setup do you all have for your accounts? How did you pare them down? How do you manage them all?

tl;dr:  we have so much money in so many places that it’s a pain to manage. Woe is me…

What kind of "reconciliations" are needed?  Are you relying on an account aggregator to analyze your spending and it's all wrong?  I just use personal capital and export my monthly transactions, delete some random stuff and voila all my accounts are reconciled.  Takes about 5 minutes to update my spreadsheet

[jfer_rose]

Okay, this is a real MPP, and I need some advice…

How many accounts do you all have?

We have several dozen accounts - checking and savings for us and for our kids, a handful of credit cards, 529s, 401k’s, Roth IRAs, traditional IRAs, pensions, home, rentals, mortgages, business investments, investment club… the list goes on. The monthly reconciliations are a huge hassle. What sort of setup do you all have for your accounts? How did you pare them down? How do you manage them all?

tl;dr:  we have so much money in so many places that it’s a pain to manage. Woe is me…

Is this a Mustachian person problem? I have so few accounts such that websites like Mint and Personal Capital constantly prompt me to complete my profile by adding the rest of my accounts. I have entered every account that I have and yet these websites always tell me my profile is not yet complete.

I have about 11 accounts. And many of these are different account types at the same institution.

[stoaX]

I consolidated all of our bank and investment accounts down a few years back.

My wife and I have:
- a joint chequing account
- Individual investment brokerage accounts (RRSP, TFSA)
- an RESP savings brokerage account for our son's education
- a joint investment brokerage account for overflow

So, seven accounts total.  It has made money management much simpler.

I'm jealous, but also inspired to make progress on simplifying my financial life!

[Zikoris]

We have:

- Two chequing accounts each
- One savings account each
- Two joint credit cards
- One RRSP, TFSA, and non-registered investment account each, but all investments are with one company on one joint dashboard, so really easy to keep an eye on.

[ixtap]

Between, us, dozens. But I can see five accounts with one log in here and there. Besides some credit cards, the only login that only shows one account is one of my taxable brokerage accounts and there isn't much to reconcile, other than making sure nothing has disappeared.

[secondcor521]

Okay, this is a real MPP, and I need some advice…

How many accounts do you all have?

We have several dozen accounts - checking and savings for us and for our kids, a handful of credit cards, 529s, 401k’s, Roth IRAs, traditional IRAs, pensions, home, rentals, mortgages, business investments, investment club… the list goes on. The monthly reconciliations are a huge hassle. What sort of setup do you all have for your accounts? How did you pare them down? How do you manage them all?

tl;dr:  we have so much money in so many places that it’s a pain to manage. Woe is me…

What kind of "reconciliations" are needed?  Are you relying on an account aggregator to analyze your spending and it's all wrong?  I just use personal capital and export my monthly transactions, delete some random stuff and voila all my accounts are reconciled.  Takes about 5 minutes to update my spreadsheet

I've always used reconciliation to mean the process of checking my records of transactions against the financial institution's records of my transactions and verifying that they match.  I assumed that's what the original poster meant.

It seems that younger generations don't really keep their own records and just trust whatever the financial institution says.  Errors are rare, so this is a reasonable approach.  I still check anyways.

[RWD]

Okay, this is a real MPP, and I need some advice…

How many accounts do you all have?

We have several dozen accounts - checking and savings for us and for our kids, a handful of credit cards, 529s, 401k’s, Roth IRAs, traditional IRAs, pensions, home, rentals, mortgages, business investments, investment club… the list goes on. The monthly reconciliations are a huge hassle. What sort of setup do you all have for your accounts? How did you pare them down? How do you manage them all?

tl;dr:  we have so much money in so many places that it’s a pain to manage. Woe is me…

What kind of "reconciliations" are needed?  Are you relying on an account aggregator to analyze your spending and it's all wrong?  I just use personal capital and export my monthly transactions, delete some random stuff and voila all my accounts are reconciled.  Takes about 5 minutes to update my spreadsheet

I've always used reconciliation to mean the process of checking my records of transactions against the financial institution's records of my transactions and verifying that they match.  I assumed that's what the original poster meant.

It seems that younger generations don't really keep their own records and just trust whatever the financial institution says.  Errors are rare, so this is a reasonable approach.  I still check anyways.

Same here. GnuCash even has a built-in Reconcile feature (I assume other accounting software does as well). Whenever I get a statement for an account I reconcile it in GnuCash to make sure everything lines up.

[NorthernIkigai]

Okay, this is a real MPP, and I need some advice…

How many accounts do you all have?

We have several dozen accounts - checking and savings for us and for our kids, a handful of credit cards, 529s, 401k’s, Roth IRAs, traditional IRAs, pensions, home, rentals, mortgages, business investments, investment club… the list goes on. The monthly reconciliations are a huge hassle. What sort of setup do you all have for your accounts? How did you pare them down? How do you manage them all?

tl;dr:  we have so much money in so many places that it’s a pain to manage. Woe is me…

What kind of "reconciliations" are needed?  Are you relying on an account aggregator to analyze your spending and it's all wrong?  I just use personal capital and export my monthly transactions, delete some random stuff and voila all my accounts are reconciled.  Takes about 5 minutes to update my spreadsheet

I've always used reconciliation to mean the process of checking my records of transactions against the financial institution's records of my transactions and verifying that they match.  I assumed that's what the original poster meant.

It seems that younger generations don't really keep their own records and just trust whatever the financial institution says.  Errors are rare, so this is a reasonable approach.  I still check anyways.

Most of my accounts have 0 or 1 transactions per month… not much to reconcile. The account that has all the household stuff happening to often has several transactions a day, and those go into my spreadsheet daily. But the investment accounts? A monthly or quarterly addition, what is there to verify? I mean I do glance at them occasionally, so I’d notice if they had disappeared or had odd transactions in it, but the whole system is just not that complex.

[GuitarStv]

I consolidated all of our bank and investment accounts down a few years back.

My wife and I have:
- a joint chequing account
- Individual investment brokerage accounts (RRSP, TFSA)
- an RESP savings brokerage account for our son's education
- a joint investment brokerage account for overflow

So, seven accounts total.  It has made money management much simpler.

I'm jealous, but also inspired to make progress on simplifying my financial life!

I'm not going to lie . . . it was kind of a nightmare to do.  Just don't expect anything to happen quickly.  Or for the bank to get things right the first three or four times.  :P

[rantk81]

I've consolidated things to the best extent that I can. Everything I have a choice over, is at Fidelity. but the problem is, my hands are tied about keeping some other accounts. Notable examples are:

ETrade - my employers RSU and ESPP plans are here.
Chase - my spouse needs to use Zelle, and Fidelity doesn't offer it
TreasuryDirect - there's no way to hold I-Bonds outside of TD, as far as I know
Target & Synchrony - Credit cards needed to get 5% discounts at Target and Amazon purchases

[Loren Ver]

Between DH and I
20 Investment accounts over multiple companies.  These get tracked quarterly in a spreadsheet
4 Credit cards, tracked monthly in spreadsheet.
2 Two checking accounts with debit cards, one with paper checks, tracked monthly in spreadsheet.
2 savings accounts, not used, just have minimums to avoid fees.

Everything that can be joint is joint, we just have two because one is a bank and one is a credit union. 

We plan on using the market down turn to perhaps sell off two of our taxable investments to simplify while not taking such a big tax hit.  Win/Win.

I'm also trying to convince DH that he can roll an ancient 403b into a IRA (we can start a conversion on that right-google says yes...) with a company we already have.  That way I have one less random website I have to go dig up once a quarter to see what happened.  Wish me luck.

[pasadenafr]

Okay, this is a real MPP, and I need some advice…

How many accounts do you all have?

We have several dozen accounts - checking and savings for us and for our kids, a handful of credit cards, 529s, 401k’s, Roth IRAs, traditional IRAs, pensions, home, rentals, mortgages, business investments, investment club… the list goes on. The monthly reconciliations are a huge hassle. What sort of setup do you all have for your accounts? How did you pare them down? How do you manage them all?

tl;dr:  we have so much money in so many places that it’s a pain to manage. Woe is me…

Hmm so you got me to count 'em. Guess I do have some cleaning up to do

The ones I use actively and track in YNAB:

- 2 checking accounts (one is my main, in online bank, the other was opened when I got my car loan. Keeping it with the minimum because it's a good CU and I might need them in the future).
- 2 savings account (buffer/sinking fund and emergency fund)
- 3 credit cards
- Investment accounts (all at the same brokerage):
  - 1 401(k) (it's really two accounts because I use the self-directed option)
  - 2 Roth IRAs (one for backdoor, the other for mega backdoor)
  - 2 Brokerage accounts (one for regular investments, the other for RSU/ESPP and fun money)
  - 1 HSA
- 1 TreasuryDirect account
- 1 checking and 1 brokerage at Schwab, which I use when I travel abroad, mostly for ATM withdrawals

Then there's the ones I don't use much or at all and/or don't track:

- 1 CMA at Fidelity (for the occasional transfer)
- 1 Traditional IRA at Vanguard (need to close it and open one at Fidelity at the end of the year)
- 1 Savings account at the aforementioned CU, mandatory to keep the checking account free
- Couple of empty savings accounts at my online bank
- 1 Brokerage at Robinhood (got a bonus, hate the app and platform, forgot to close it)
- 1 HSA and 1 FSA at work

I also apparently still have a EDD account at Bank of America, from back when I got unemployment benefits for 3 months in CA a few years ago. They're still sending me a monthly statement.

[mspym]

I just counted up and I have 9 in total but things only really happen on the credit card which makes reconciliation very easy.
Cheque accts 3 : two in Au and a new one in NZ
Savings 1
Investments 3: A superannuation acct, a taxable acct and a packet of employee shares
Credit card 1
The ninth is just the bucket where I track the value of any rewards cards just so I remember to spend the credits before they expire.

[LennStar]

1 daily use account, with connected "credit" card. (Master Card but you don't get credit, acts like debit but works everywhere credit is wanted, important for international buys)
2 investment accounts (different banks for various reasons)
1 pension account

[Siebrie]

1 joint checking account with attached 2 joint savings accounts, 1 savings account in my name, 1 credit card in husband's name (yeah, weird Belgian bank, won't allow joint credit cards, and only allows 2 joint savings accounts and 1 single savings account for each partner, and credit card in 1 person's name that the other partner can't see in the app or online...).
2 pension savings accounts
husband has a second credit card
eldest daughter has an account linked to ours, but the card keeps getting declined at stores and ATM's, so we'll close the account and open a new one with a different bank.
1 account in my name in The Netherlands, used whenever we go to The Netherlands, to avoid paying ATM fees for the Belgian card.

That's 9.

I have about 7 pension accounts in the Netherlands, and 2 in Belgium, but they are through my employer, and cannot be changed or accessed until I retire, so I'm not counting them.

[dignam]

Neither cool nor that young, but I use Personal Capital and check it at least twice a month.  The only account I really need to scan through transactions for is my credit card.  Every purchase possible goes on that and gets paid in full.  The remaining accounts (checking, savings, brokerage, 401k, Roth IRA, Rollover IRA, mortgage, HELOC) have very few transactions.  I export some data and keep for my own records, and use the NW value to post in the "Race to $XXX" threads.

[dragoncar]

Okay, this is a real MPP, and I need some advice…

How many accounts do you all have?

We have several dozen accounts - checking and savings for us and for our kids, a handful of credit cards, 529s, 401k’s, Roth IRAs, traditional IRAs, pensions, home, rentals, mortgages, business investments, investment club… the list goes on. The monthly reconciliations are a huge hassle. What sort of setup do you all have for your accounts? How did you pare them down? How do you manage them all?

tl;dr:  we have so much money in so many places that it’s a pain to manage. Woe is me…

What kind of "reconciliations" are needed?  Are you relying on an account aggregator to analyze your spending and it's all wrong?  I just use personal capital and export my monthly transactions, delete some random stuff and voila all my accounts are reconciled.  Takes about 5 minutes to update my spreadsheet

I've always used reconciliation to mean the process of checking my records of transactions against the financial institution's records of my transactions and verifying that they match.  I assumed that's what the original poster meant.

It seems that younger generations don't really keep their own records and just trust whatever the financial institution says.  Errors are rare, so this is a reasonable approach.  I still check anyways.

Ok, but if I go to the transaction view for personal capital I’ll see entries like:

Roth IRA: $6000 transfer in
Savings: $6000 transfer to Roth
Roth: $6000 vtsax purchase

It doesn’t matter how many accounts I have they all line up neatly together and it’s like a few dozen transactions per month max

Or are you getting paper statements from your bank and checking it against your brokerage?   I guess I trust that the electronic data is going to match the paper statement (because the paper statement will be generated from the same underlying data) but if I did see some unauthorized transaction it’s easy enough in this view

[secondcor521]

Okay, this is a real MPP, and I need some advice…

How many accounts do you all have?

We have several dozen accounts - checking and savings for us and for our kids, a handful of credit cards, 529s, 401k’s, Roth IRAs, traditional IRAs, pensions, home, rentals, mortgages, business investments, investment club… the list goes on. The monthly reconciliations are a huge hassle. What sort of setup do you all have for your accounts? How did you pare them down? How do you manage them all?

tl;dr:  we have so much money in so many places that it’s a pain to manage. Woe is me…

What kind of "reconciliations" are needed?  Are you relying on an account aggregator to analyze your spending and it's all wrong?  I just use personal capital and export my monthly transactions, delete some random stuff and voila all my accounts are reconciled.  Takes about 5 minutes to update my spreadsheet

I've always used reconciliation to mean the process of checking my records of transactions against the financial institution's records of my transactions and verifying that they match.  I assumed that's what the original poster meant.

It seems that younger generations don't really keep their own records and just trust whatever the financial institution says.  Errors are rare, so this is a reasonable approach.  I still check anyways.

Ok, but if I go to the transaction view for personal capital I’ll see entries like:

Roth IRA: $6000 transfer in
Savings: $6000 transfer to Roth
Roth: $6000 vtsax purchase

It doesn’t matter how many accounts I have they all line up neatly together and it’s like a few dozen transactions per month max

Or are you getting paper statements from your bank and checking it against your brokerage?   I guess I trust that the electronic data is going to match the paper statement (because the paper statement will be generated from the same underlying data) but if I did see some unauthorized transaction it’s easy enough in this view

I was just answering your question literally as to what I thought the other poster meant by the term.  I didn't mean to imply that it was onerous for anyone (including me) or even that anyone had to do it.

Personally I do reconcile all my accounts periodically, most of the time nearly automatically in Quicken, and always electronically.  I'm autopay and paperless on everything except the annual tax documents.

The point for me is to find errors, either in my own tracking (occasionally) or the financial institution's tracking (rarely).  I make financial decisions based on my financial records, so errors made by me are just as problematic - I might, for example, overdraw my checking account or realize too much AGI in a given tax year.

Most people I think just assume that the financial institutions get things right all the time.  And while I agree with that based on my experience, I also am stubborn about giving up the Old Ways.  Part of this may be because I did one time find a multi-thousand dollar error by a financial institution that they never caught.  It took six months to fix.  Also, I think I'm one of the weird people who just enjoy tracking and reconciling the data.  Also also, as mentioned above it's generally easy to do.

[NorthernIkigai]

I guess if my glancing at different accounts counts as reconciliation (since it’d catch extra, missing, or erroneous transactions), then sure, I do it several times a day :-) It’s just too damn easy with all the apps available, and is I guess part of the habit I have of looking at my pretty FIRE spread sheet most days (even though I update it only once a quarter and it’s not really relevant for another 5+ years…). Sad, I know.

Many years ago, before apps, I made a transfer from my bank account to my brokerage account in a different country. Back then, this could take a few days, but now it was taking a bit longer and I got a bit worried and messaged my bank. They then promptly charged me a fee for this! The money turned up in the brokerage account, and I argued with the bank that I didn’t ask them to incur any fees, and that they really should have asked me whether I wanted to go down that route. They agreed in principle and refunded me the part charged by them, but not the (larger) part they apparently had paid to the foreign bank used by the brokerage. I turned to the financial ombudsman in the country my bank was in (which was a good exercise for me, since I had to do it in a language I usually just talked it, and didn’t do formal stuff like this in), and ended up getting the rest reimbursed as well. I understand that companies have lists of prices for different services and all, but you should be able to write a simple question to your bank without having to consult that list or get smacked with a fee straight away.

[dragoncar]

I guess if my glancing at different accounts counts as reconciliation (since it’d catch extra, missing, or erroneous transactions), then sure, I do it several times a day :-) It’s just too damn easy with all the apps available, and is I guess part of the habit I have of looking at my pretty FIRE spread sheet most days (even though I update it only once a quarter and it’s not really relevant for another 5+ years…). Sad, I know.

Many years ago, before apps, I made a transfer from my bank account to my brokerage account in a different country. Back then, this could take a few days, but now it was taking a bit longer and I got a bit worried and messaged my bank. They then promptly charged me a fee for this! The money turned up in the brokerage account, and I argued with the bank that I didn’t ask them to incur any fees, and that they really should have asked me whether I wanted to go down that route. They agreed in principle and refunded me the part charged by them, but not the (larger) part they apparently had paid to the foreign bank used by the brokerage. I turned to the financial ombudsman in the country my bank was in (which was a good exercise for me, since I had to do it in a language I usually just talked it, and didn’t do formal stuff like this in), and ended up getting the rest reimbursed as well. I understand that companies have lists of prices for different services and all, but you should be able to write a simple question to your bank without having to consult that list or get smacked with a fee straight away.

This is a good story.  Please remit the $20 story fee immediately.

[Just Joe]

I have 1GB of data per month and use about half that.  I do things via wifi, but I only do them when I am home.  Things can wait.  DH has zero data, he still has a flip phone.  For him, everything waits until he gets back to his desk top, and the wifi at home.  Loren

Same. I have WiFi access at work and home.

[Adventine]

Today at the grocery, my husband pulls out a $20 bill and tells me to use it to pay for the groceries.


Me: Why? We've got a good grocery cashback card right here.


Him: I'm tired of looking at this bill in my wallet.


I keep the $20, put it in MY wallet, and use the CC to pay for the groceries.

[dragoncar]

Today at the grocery, my husband pulls out a $20 bill and tells me to use it to pay for the groceries.


Me: Why? We've got a good grocery cashback card right here.


Him: I'm tired of looking at this bill in my wallet.


I keep the $20, put it in MY wallet, and use the CC to pay for the groceries.

Buy yourself something nice.  Like a shirt that says "top is in"

[Adventine]

Today at the grocery, my husband pulls out a $20 bill and tells me to use it to pay for the groceries.


Me: Why? We've got a good grocery cashback card right here.


Him: I'm tired of looking at this bill in my wallet.


I keep the $20, put it in MY wallet, and use the CC to pay for the groceries.

Buy yourself something nice.  Like a shirt that says "top is in"

I'm going to wear that shirt on the day I meet you in person.

[ixtap]

Today at the grocery, my husband pulls out a $20 bill and tells me to use it to pay for the groceries.


Me: Why? We've got a good grocery cashback card right here.


Him: I'm tired of looking at this bill in my wallet.


I keep the $20, put it in MY wallet, and use the CC to pay for the groceries.

See, my husband doesn't open his wallet enough to get annoyed by cash. The only reason he knows where his wallet is is because he is diligent about having his driver's license on him when he goes to yoga or pt. He asked which card to use for restaurants a couple of months ago, but his manager picked up the tab.

[Dicey]

Today at the grocery, my husband pulls out a $20 bill and tells me to use it to pay for the groceries.


Me: Why? We've got a good grocery cashback card right here.


Him: I'm tired of looking at this bill in my wallet.


I keep the $20, put it in MY wallet, and use the CC to pay for the groceries.

❤️

[ixtap]

We keep getting decent "pay down your high interest" offers, but our only interest rate is 0%, which is the only reason we even have any debt.