Reconciliation is an extremely important part of money management.
Reconciliation is an extremely important part of money management.
Reconciliation is an extremely important part of money management.

Just knowing what you have in your bank account is NOT reconciliation!

When I reconcile an account I am ‘touching’ with my mind each thing I spent money on. That gives me ownership and makes me AWARE of what I have just done. So it is NOT uncommon to say “Why did I buy that?”. Even though it does not fix it for that past month it makes me much more AWARE for the following month.

For the past 2 years I have found things that DO NOT belong in my accounts and that is the purpose of this article:
–A1 Member
–Grant Masters
–ClkBank
–Grants-R-Us
–APL*tunes

Those things look very harmless and could easily be overlooked on a reconciliation report. Since my corporate account is used by my husband, my mom, my children I just ‘assumed’ those were things they had bought or companies they had used.

Then I started noticing they came up over and over again each month. $15-$25 each per month. Varying amounts.    When I started my year-end clean up I noticed I had categorized them as Miscellaneous and you know you can’t have miscellaneous on a tax return. I keep thinking  I would get around to ‘asking them what it was’.   (The Ascend Team Inserts:  This is why it’s so important to do your books in a software program like Ascend; reconciling is easy, and all your expenses are categorized for you!)

Instead I goggled each company and found out they were all SCAMS. They had stolen our debit card and was using it under various names each month. So slight a thing people would not notice.

By the time I caught this last year the first 4 names had charged  $366.16 total to my account. Just yesterday I caught the APL*tunes….it looks enough like APPLE or iTunes that it had again had gone undetected. They have charged between $15-$25 each month for the past 4 months.

My bank researched everything for me last year and refunded the money back into my account and I am confident they will do this last batch. It all starts with AWARENESS.

Remember AWARENESS is the first step in Financial Freedom.

Linda

It is my personal belief that God will give us more when we take care of what he has already given us.

Whether it is our weight, our relationships or our money …awareness is key in getting started. Awareness means TRACKING. TRACKING. TRACKING. When you read that statement did you say …”I hate tracking or I don’t want to know or I am not good at that or blah, blah, blah.”   Those are areas that MUST MUST MUST change.

So figure out an affirmation to tell yourself when you hear your brain going in that direction.  Sample Affirmations I have used over the years:
–I am a smart, educated women. I will NOT be defeated by this.
–I refuse to be ignorant about this. No matter how long it takes me I will conquer this.
–I will not be defeated. I will not be defeated. I will not be defeated. No matter how many nights I have to stay awake to figure this out I will do what every it takes.
–Money buys me choices. Choices reduce stress in my life and the lives of people I love.
–I create wealth for my family. (when I see the color green)

Resources to help you track:   http://ascendlive.com

Ascend came into my life after I had mastered Quickbooks (so I personally use Quickbooks for that reason). The Ascend Program is $7.95 per month so it is less expensive and easier to use–and it was designed for the Mary Kay business.  It does splits, helps you budget and track track track.

–Linda Toupin