Want to Track Expenses - Learn to Use Microsoft Money or Quicken

As I began to mature financially, one of the things I learned was the importance of keeping track of all of your accounts. This can be done manually, but at a certain point it pays to invest in some software to help you manage your financial life. Not only will it make you more efficient, but you will gain access to powerful tools that will help you understand your financial health in a new way.

Microsoft Money and Quicken are both great programs that allow you to create and organize all of your accounts and group your transactions. For example, you can put all of your checking and savings accounts in one area, credit accounts in another, followed by investment accounts, loans and liabilities, and asset accounts. If you keep everything updated, you will always know your net worth at any given time, and you can keep track of whether it is growing or not. Get Rich Slowly writes about setting up separate accounts for different needs that you may have....emergency, new car fund, vacation. These programs will help you keep track of those various accounts quickly and easily.

Grouping your transactions is one of the most important things you can do. Each time you buy something you simply select a label such as gas, groceries, electric bill....etc. The more specific you are, the more you will get out of your information.

You can then set up budget parameters and Money will let you know when you are in danger of going over budget. This is a great tool.

Want to know how much you are spending at Starbucks. Simply run a quick report and you will see how much you are spending each month. The results may scare you, but its a great way to get an understanding of areas where you may be overspending.

I encourage you to demo a copy of Microsoft Money for free and try it out for 60 days. If you want to upgrade to a full copy simply purchase a code and you won't lose any information.