Comments on: Four Reports to Track Your Finances http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/four-reports-to-track-your-finances/ Helping you invest and prosper Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:40:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Thicken My Wallet » Blog Archive » A roadmap to turning around your personal finances http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/four-reports-to-track-your-finances/#comment-180276 Thicken My Wallet » Blog Archive » A roadmap to turning around your personal finances Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:00:01 +0000 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/?p=1595#comment-180276 [...] you are at.  If you don’t know what to track, Canadian Capitalist provides a four ways to track your personal finance. If you have filed using the shoebox method, take an afternoon to sort through them and start with [...] [...] you are at.  If you don’t know what to track, Canadian Capitalist provides a four ways to track your personal finance. If you have filed using the shoebox method, take an afternoon to sort through them and start with [...]

]]> By: Sunday Roundup Before Affiliate Summit | ComputerFinance.net http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/four-reports-to-track-your-finances/#comment-179042 Sunday Roundup Before Affiliate Summit | ComputerFinance.net Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:23:17 +0000 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/?p=1595#comment-179042 [...] Capitalist writes that there are four reports to track our finances!  Check out his post to find out what they [...] [...] Capitalist writes that there are four reports to track our finances!  Check out his post to find out what they [...]

]]> By: Canadian Capitalist http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/four-reports-to-track-your-finances/#comment-178938 Canadian Capitalist Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:21:22 +0000 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/?p=1595#comment-178938 Shadox: Nosy, aren't you? We saved 55% of our income (I count portfolio dividends as income). Net worth was down roughly 5.4% due to negative portfolio returns. I rebalanced late last year, so asset allocation is on target and like I mentioned in the post, portfolio expenses were 0.2%. Shadox: Nosy, aren’t you? We saved 55% of our income (I count portfolio dividends as income). Net worth was down roughly 5.4% due to negative portfolio returns. I rebalanced late last year, so asset allocation is on target and like I mentioned in the post, portfolio expenses were 0.2%.

]]> By: Sunday Roundup Before Affiliate Summit | CardFind.info http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/four-reports-to-track-your-finances/#comment-178624 Sunday Roundup Before Affiliate Summit | CardFind.info Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:44:01 +0000 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/?p=1595#comment-178624 [...] Capitalist writes that there are four reports to track our finances!  Check out his post to find out what they [...] [...] Capitalist writes that there are four reports to track our finances!  Check out his post to find out what they [...]

]]> By: Shadox http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/four-reports-to-track-your-finances/#comment-178529 Shadox Sun, 11 Jan 2009 01:10:51 +0000 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/?p=1595#comment-178529 So how did you actually do last year? So how did you actually do last year?

]]> By: Weekly Dividend Investing Roundup - January 10, 2009 | The Dividend Guy Blog http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/four-reports-to-track-your-finances/#comment-178464 Weekly Dividend Investing Roundup - January 10, 2009 | The Dividend Guy Blog Sat, 10 Jan 2009 11:03:11 +0000 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/?p=1595#comment-178464 [...] Four reports to track your finances [...] [...] Four reports to track your finances [...]

]]> By: Kathryn http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/four-reports-to-track-your-finances/#comment-178302 Kathryn Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:18:32 +0000 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/?p=1595#comment-178302 Derek ~ I use www.wesabe.com on my Mac. It's online and it's free. I love the tags which it recognizes each time so I don't have to put them in every time. It does all the work for me. I've been really impressed and it didn't cost a dime. Derek ~ I use http://www.wesabe.com on my Mac. It’s online and it’s free. I love the tags which it recognizes each time so I don’t have to put them in every time. It does all the work for me. I’ve been really impressed and it didn’t cost a dime.

]]> By: Derek http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/four-reports-to-track-your-finances/#comment-178075 Derek Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:30:43 +0000 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/?p=1595#comment-178075 Does anyone know of good expense tracking for Mac? I understand they're creating Quicken for Mac in August but would like to start tracking now. Does anyone know of good expense tracking for Mac? I understand they’re creating Quicken for Mac in August but would like to start tracking now.

]]> By: Sampson http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/four-reports-to-track-your-finances/#comment-177861 Sampson Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:43:06 +0000 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/?p=1595#comment-177861 I do 1 through 3. I don't have account fees, no management fees for me (i chose only low MER ETFs for my wife), and don't trade often. I do make mental notes regarding trading fees at the time and minimize it as a % of the amount invested but I never concerned myself with actually calculating #4 although maybe I would be surprised, hopefully on happy kind ;) I do 1 through 3.

I don’t have account fees, no management fees for me (i chose only low MER ETFs for my wife), and don’t trade often.

I do make mental notes regarding trading fees at the time and minimize it as a % of the amount invested but I never concerned myself with actually calculating #4 although maybe I would be surprised, hopefully on happy kind ;)

]]> By: Ben http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/four-reports-to-track-your-finances/#comment-177753 Ben Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:52:44 +0000 http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/?p=1595#comment-177753 3 out of 4 definitely. Tracking expenses vs. income is the core of my financial planning. I have developed quite a nice spreadsheet that allows me to copy and paste from online accounts, categorize all my monthly exp. & inc. and pivot into monthly and annual summaries. I am working on making it a bit more robust such than someone with a general knowledge of Excel could make use of this sheet without any formatting etc, and the ability to create their own categories in a couple of minutes. May share with you CC another day when it's a bit more robust and see if there is any value in posting it for your readers. Net worth is also a useful tool, broken down into various sub-categories like car/home equity, and financial investments. Nice to see it going up over time, and make corrections if it happened to go down for any reason. I always keep the value of my house constant in an upward rising housing market, because I want to know that any increase in asset value is due to our own savings/lifestyle, and not the whims of the market. I have no such qualms about lowering its value in the current/coming down market though. And I check and rebalance the allocations a couple of times a year (a habit I've certainly picked up from you CC). Group RRSP trading fees are paid by our employer, and we have only the fairly low MER's to contend with on the index funds. Aleks: Tracking expense vs. earnings does make one feel better. Knowledge is power - if I make money, I want to know it, and if I lose money in a month, I want to know that too. I also want to know why, and how to continue or change the behaviour next month. Incidentally, I am an advocate of the yearly budget, vs. monthly, because so many expenses are not monthly, and get forgotten about. An annual budget is more likely to be an honest one. 3 out of 4 definitely.
Tracking expenses vs. income is the core of my financial planning. I have developed quite a nice spreadsheet that allows me to copy and paste from online accounts, categorize all my monthly exp. & inc. and pivot into monthly and annual summaries. I am working on making it a bit more robust such than someone with a general knowledge of Excel could make use of this sheet without any formatting etc, and the ability to create their own categories in a couple of minutes. May share with you CC another day when it’s a bit more robust and see if there is any value in posting it for your readers.
Net worth is also a useful tool, broken down into various sub-categories like car/home equity, and financial investments. Nice to see it going up over time, and make corrections if it happened to go down for any reason. I always keep the value of my house constant in an upward rising housing market, because I want to know that any increase in asset value is due to our own savings/lifestyle, and not the whims of the market. I have no such qualms about lowering its value in the current/coming down market though.
And I check and rebalance the allocations a couple of times a year (a habit I’ve certainly picked up from you CC).
Group RRSP trading fees are paid by our employer, and we have only the fairly low MER’s to contend with on the index funds.

Aleks: Tracking expense vs. earnings does make one feel better. Knowledge is power – if I make money, I want to know it, and if I lose money in a month, I want to know that too. I also want to know why, and how to continue or change the behaviour next month. Incidentally, I am an advocate of the yearly budget, vs. monthly, because so many expenses are not monthly, and get forgotten about. An annual budget is more likely to be an honest one.

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