I realized, years ago, that I needed to start treating my personal financial life like my business life. And getting my business life in order was a real daunting challenge. Engineers and Lawyers are not taught about accounting methods, and Calculus students in high school don't learn "business math" that the vocational students get to study. Guess which is more useful in running a business?
So, years (decades!) ago, I bought my first copy of Quickbooks and took an "Adult Education" class in Arlington on how to use the program. I learned about accounts payable and accounts receivable and how to log charges and checks and create invoices. Since I had an old tractor-feed dot-matrix printer (Panasonic KXP-1184!) and tractor-feed check stock, every check I mailed out was automatically logged in Quickbooks and every invoice accounted for. I quickly realized I had one client who was seriously past due. I also never had an overdraft, ever again, for the rest of my life.
Of course, today, everything is online and I rarely ever write a check anymore. But I still log everything in Quickbooks, so I know not just what my bank balance is, but what my real available balance is, at all times. It does no good to log onto your bank's website or app and see that your balance is $250 if you just wrote a check for $300 or have a car payment or utility bill set to auto-debit in two days for over that amount. You are overdrawn but just don't know it yet.
Yes, the bank website or app (and e-mail and text messages) are very helpful in keeping track of things, but unless you have an independent accounting of your own, you have no real idea of what is going on. It is akin to judging the speed of your car by waiting to pass one of those radar speed signs to tell you. Sure, you know you are going 55 MPH when you pass that sign (because it flashes your speed) but what about the rest of the time?
In the mid-2000's, some "financial" apps came out, such as MINT, which claimed to help people manage their finances. I looked into it and realized it was junk. They asked you for usernames and passwords for your bank accounts so they could report your data "all in one place!" for convenience. Then, they would generate gibberish pie charts based on the credit card spending codes (which are rarely accurate) so you could see "where all your money goes!" And of course, they would pepper you with ads for credit card deals and loans and the like.
At best, it provided a rear-view mirror of where you went. But again, using the driving a car analogy, it helps to be able to see where you are going, rather than what happened in the past. In finances, money spent is water over-the-dam, and there is little to be gained naval-gazing about things that can't be undone. Meanwhile, it might help to see the truck you are about to rear-end so you can take action.
Quickbooks 2002 is almost 25 years old, but it still works and is paid-for. And quite frankly, the later versions provide little improvement, but of course, they changed the file formatting, so your accountant needs you to upgrade to the latest version, so you can download your data to them. I upgraded three times, stopping at 2002, simply because they would not covert my 2002 data file to a version that was more than two upgrades later. So Quickbooks talked themselves out of a sale. Also, it turns out, my accountant really didn't need access to ALL of my data, just the income and expenses, which Quickbooks 2002 can generate easily with its report feature.
But as a full-blown accounting software, it is clunky to use and requires a Windows platform - and it will be a cold day in hell before I "upgrade" to an AI-assisted ad-laden Windows 11, thank you very much. So I thought, since our life is simplifying, that maybe I could dust off my rarely used chromebook and run some sort of accounting "app" that would let me balance my checkbook and credit card accounts. I don't need to create invoices or log expenses for tax reasons anymore, just a simple account balancing program.
Well, Google suggested Quicken Simplifi, which sounded appealing and runs as an app on a phone or tablet - or Chromebook. And that's all a Chromebook is, a tablet with a keyboard. And all a tablet is, is a phone with a big screen. They offered a 50% off deal (first year only) for $35.99 so I thought I would give it a try.
Big mistake. It is just MINT under a different name. They ask to link to your bank accounts, which takes a leap of faith. Then, if the linking works, they will display your balances and charges (and checks) which is just what you can get from your bank's own website or app. That is, provided the linking works, which over a period of several days, never did. Google "Simplifi won't link with my bank" and you'll see a plethora of hits. The app is flaky to say the least.
But even the parts that work are worthless. Your home page is a number of "cards" with lots of spending graphs, "savings goals", your credit score, and worst of all, "medals" you can earn as you achieve different goals - as if your finances were some sort of video game or your karma score on Reddit.
Banking information? Just your overall balance from all of your accounts. No way to reconcile accounts or enter pending charges or checks. Well, you can, sort of do the latter, if you want to set up a manual account (which I had to do, since the sync feature simply didn't work) but it was clunky. You enter the charges or checks and then..... see them nowhere. No line-item listing with a running balance like in Quickbooks. It is dumbed-down for the debt-ridden 20-something who thinks of finances in terms of their almighty credit score and how much available credit they have.
But I could find no way to reconcile accounts with the bank statements (or even running balances) so even the manual account entry was sort of useless. It was just another useless MINT app for people who want to think they are being financially savvy by buying their shoes on sale - when they don't need a new pair of shoes and have a closet full.
So, I'll keep looking. And I'll keep looking for a real use for the Chromebook - other than playing Youtube videos in the camper I guess.
What it reminded me of, was, that the powers-that-be don't want you to be financially literate. You go on Reddit and see the 20-something generation-Z complaining that the banks are ripping them off with overdraft charges. When I was that age, so did I. After all, I just wrote $50 in checks over the weekend to buy beer and score some pot and my bank balance was only $30. Mean old banks! It took me a long time to literally "sober up" and realize the problem wasn't the banks, but my inability to say "No" to wants that were not needs, particularly when I could not afford them.
It wasn't a matter of "making more money" - indeed, at the time, I was delivering pizzas while going to night school. It was more a matter of taking money more seriously and keeping track of bank balances. Years later, when I was indeed "making more money" I lost that financial discipline and once again overdrafted my accounts - a pretty stupid thing to do. But I realized then, it wasn't the bank's fault, but mine, and as I noted, got religion and Quickbooks and the rest is history.
The 20-somethings (of all eras) are indeed right that the system is stacked against them, but not in the way they think. The evil is not the bank bounce charge, but the blaring ads on the television enticing them to buy a new car, obsess about their credit score, apply for loan after loan, and live in debt for the rest of their lives. Their demon isn't Sallie Mae demanding repayment of their student loans, but the sweet lies told to them that a degree in communications will make them the next Dan Rather - or whatever.
I see it online all the time today. On Youtube or whatever ad-based streaming service, the ads are all for sports betting, online casinos, or for-profit online colleges. Do people really still fall for this crap? The for-profit college scam has been known about for decades - does no one listen? And so many of these ads seemed to be aimed at minorities, much as the ads for various fragrances, whether they be air fresheners, body sprays, or detergents. Do minorities obsess more than others about being stank?
I digress, but that is the real evil in the world - and people swallow those pitches hook, line, and sinker. Brand-name soaps sell more to the poor than to the middle-class. The poor obsess about the appearance of wealth, whether it is in hairstyles. clothing, accessories, or the car they drive. It is a trap, plain and simple. And once trapped, the television offers a way out - through the online casino or the worthless online degree.
Or by "getting your finances in order" by paying money for a worthless "app" that tells you nothing.
I cancelled the subscription on "Google Play" (itself a scam, which promotes pointless online games and casinos) and requested a refund of my $35.99. We'll see where that goes. In the meantime, I guess I am stuck with Quickbooks 2002 for another decade or so.... We'll see.
UPDATE: Clear Checkbook seems promising. It started as a register type app for balancing accounts (which is what I wanted) but has added MINT-type features over time. I'll look into it. They offer a free version which is pretty basic, but allows you to try out the app before spending money.
