Thursday, May 7, 2009

v24.5: PocketSmith Fun

Good Morning Folks,

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It is Thursday and I can hardly believe this week has gone by so fast.  Of course I was sick Monday and worked from home yesterday so really I've only been in the office for one day this week so far.  Wouldn't be nice if you could go into the office one day a week and still make decent money to live?  Better yet, don't you wish you could work from home all the time?

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The title of my musing today may seem a bit confusing to some.  I want to introduce you to this little web application I found a couple weeks ago called PocketSmith (http://www.pocketsmith.com).  The slogan on their website simple states, "Forecasting made simple".  No, we're not talking about weather forecasting here but financial forecasting.

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If you're anything like most people, you've tried various applications out there in hopes of managing your money better and budgeting.  Well this little web app attempts to do just that in a simple to use interface with very effort.  Basically you go in and select the days of the month you have bills/payments coming out.  You can make those recurring weekly, bi-weekly and monthly if you wish or just a one time payment.  You can add your income in there as well so if you get paid bi-weekly as I do, you can put that in as income every two weeks.  What you'll start to see as you populate PocketSmith is there is a little graph at the top of the page that begins to go up (or down in some cases) to forecast your finances.  Also, for each day of the month it will display your remaining balance in your account(s) based on the payments that have come out up to that point.

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For example, let's say I take home a thousand dollars bi-weekly.  I plug that payment in there and it shows me on the 1st of May I will have +$1,000 in my account.  Then I plug in things like montly parking ($100), groceries ($150) and monthly school fees ($40).  All of a sudden my remaining balace on May 1st is showing as $710.  Then let's say I have another payment coming out on the 5th of May for $100; all the dates after May 5th will show me $610 remaining up until the 14th of May where I will now see $1,610 because I will get paid again on that date.  Simple right?

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Of course there is more to it than those few sentences but you should get a good idea how simple this tool is to use.  Also, you can setup a financial goal in there.  For example, let's say you want to buy that brand new camper trailer to go camping with.  You tell PocketSmith how much the item costs then tell it how much of a buffer you want in your account(s) after you buy the item and then on the right hand side of your calendar you have a little box showing up displaying the name of the item (or goal) and how many days until you can buy (or achieve) that goal based on your currect financial forecast.

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Of course there are a few downsides to the application.  It is currently Beta which means there are some bugs and such that need to be worked out.  I believe they have plans to sync with bank account data which I'm always cautious of so for me I have to enter in things manually.  Of course once you've entered it in once it's there so you don't need to worry about it.  Also, the financial planner doesn't take into consideration things like picking up milk at the corner store or buying coffee every morning.  The way I plan on covering off that in PocketSmith is by creating a blanket "expense" where I will cover off all the little things like buying milk and bread or the odd treat or meal out.  At the end of the day, this tool is to help you save money by showing you where the money is going.  You may also see some trends where during the middle of every month you seem to struggle quite a bit because you have a bunch of payments coming out.  You'll find that companies and banks are more than happy to move payment dates around if you just ask.  I've moved my payment dates around in such a way that I've spread out things over multiple cheques so I don't get overwhelmed with one cheque and have to rely on more than I get paid in a single pay period.  So far things are starting to come around and I thank this little tool for showing me the light.

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If you're a google mail/calendar/everything person, you will be happy to know PocketSmith exports your financial data in ical format allowing you to have your bills/payments and income show up on your main google calendar.  This way you can see important dates coming in advance and prepare for them ahead of time.

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Folks, I could sit here all day and talk about finances and how to prepare for the future but it is all pointless if it isn't implemented and used.  I've taken some good steps and some bad steps financially and I'm not ashamed to admit I've made some very costly mistakes.  I've burned some bridges with friends and family members where I've borrowed money and didn't pay it back in a timely manner.  You don't want to go down that road, especially where family is concerned.  I've heard of a lot of nasty things that can happen within a family over finances and I have seen the bitterness in people who have lent a family member money and that money never gets repaid.  It is a poison if it isn't manage properly and if you're like me and have issues managing your finances, stay away from borrowing money if you can.  Call your bank, call your utility company, call whoever you owe money to and ask them what you can do to pay off the debt.  You'll find in most cases these places will help you out as much as they can if they see you are committed to paying off debt and are willing to work with them.

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Well folks, time for me to start earning that pay cheque now.  If you have any useful financial tips to add to this please feel free to post them to share with others.  Remember, if you previously had an account here you can access your old account with the same login and password test123.  I still can't figure out this permission denied problem I'm having.

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Until next time.

Cheers,
Al

1 comment:

  1. Some great advice Alan. If I had one thing to add it's that we're not alone in this.. any of us. In these hard times, most people are walking a financial tightrope. We all need to prioritize our spending and ask for help if it's needed. Don't wait til the bill collectors start calling. That's no fun for anyone. And you're right... most debtors are more than understanding. Been there... couldn't afford the tshirt to prove it.. :o)
    Love you

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