For those of you who enjoy using the computer, I have something useful you may like–accounting software. If you have ever used Quicken, you know what I am talking about. The program is called GnuCash and it is a commercial grade, double entry accounting software used by thousands of small businesses and accounting services. Though not as pretty, it is a feature-rich equivalent of the software used by our accounting service, Miller and Rose.
Don’t be scared by the above description; it is easy to learn as a personal finance manager. If you just want to track a checking account or two and a savings account, I can teach you all you need to know in 20 minutes. It can do so much more, however, if you need it to. It can track checking and savings accounts, investment accounts, liabilities, fixed assets, taxes, calculate your net worth and so much more.
If you have ever used a checkbook software before, the screenshot below will look familiar; it shows what the ledger page looks like. What you may not be familiar with is the column named “Transfer”. This is the beauty of the double entry system and allows you to track anything and everything to do with your finances. You can account down to the change in your pocket, if you desire to do so.

Let me know if you are interested and I will help you get started. The drawback is that it works only on Windows (PC’s) and Linux computers. If you want to go it alone just navigate to

www.gnucash.org

There are plenty of tutorials and documentation to teach you how to use it.
By the way, it is free.

mmarsha@fastmail.net::M Marshall