Like Professor Mandell, he has more of a financial cushion now than he did when he was raising three daughters. Even my father, who was my financial role model and who used to balance checkbooks to the penny, said that now he often waits two or three months before going over his statements. Many said they glanced at the statement but did not do much more. ![]() What surprised me was how few of my friends balanced their checkbooks. "I'm not a college student living down to my last nickel or getting hit by $30 or $50 in overdrawn check fees." "In my case, my accounting system is pretty good, and I have a pretty good idea of where the balance should be," he said. Debits can be for such small amounts - even McDonald's, for example, now encourages people to use their debit cards when paying for a meal - that it is easy to lose track. Now, however, "keeping track of what's in a checking account is virtually impossible," he said. Before direct deposits and, particularly, debit cards, checkbook records consisted pretty much of deposits, cash withdrawals and checks written for largish sums. "Today's technology makes it so difficult," Professor Mandell said. If they have sufficient assets and overdraft protection, there's no real need to worry about balancing their checkbook."įor those who have a pretty good idea of what is in their account and how much they spend every month, laboriously going through every statement can be just a waste of time, he said. So is there a solution? There is, but it is not your typical stern admonishment from consumer advocates about managing your money to that last penny.Īs Lewis Mandell, a professor of finance and managerial economics at the State University of New York at Buffalo, sees it: "Some people don't need to balance their checkbooks. ![]() Great as he is in so many ways, he seems to have the same deficient gene as I in the checkbook area. It is no use turning it over to my husband.
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