Managing a checking account is one of the easiest things to do.  Yet so many people just can’t seem to figure it out.  This is fine by me, until someone writes me a bad check.  Then I get mad. 

Once again, I will not endorse any financial over another, and even though I work in the industry, I am not being paid to post this information or make my employer look better than any other.

“How do I balance my checkbook?”

The simple answer is to add up all of your deposits and then subtract all of your outstanding checks to determine how much cash you really have.  Then you compare it to your bank statement, if it doesn’t match, it means that some checks haven’t cleared the account yet, or the statement came out before you made a deposit.  This method is very basic in theory, but difficult in practice because you need to write every transaction to the penny in a register.

What I do is a bit different, but it forces me to be more careful with how I spend money.  I call it round up, round down.  It’s pretty easy to do, every week I take all of the receipts and checks that were written, and I round each amount up to the next highest $10.  I always round up, so even a $0.25 purchase will become $10.  I also round down my deposits, so if I get a check for $139.98, I will round it down to $130.00.  At the end of the month I do an old-fashioned balance like I described above, and deposit the diference in my savings account.  I figure that if I could go a whole month without that money, when I find it I can put it away someplace where it will work for me a little bit.

“So what can make a checking account more convenient?”

1. Direct Deposit - If you don’t have to go to the bank to make a deposit, you save time and money.  Also banks will make the funds available immediately instead of putting a hold on a check that was deposited.
2. ATM/Debit Cards- Let you get cash at your convenience, debit cards can also be used like credit cards.  Just make sure you take it out of your register.
3. Online Banking- Allows you to transfer funds between accounts 24/7 in your pajamas even!
4. Overdraft Protection - Most places can link your checking to another account, so in the very unlikely event you write a bad check, they will cover it from another account.
5. Friendly staff- They will know your account, and the nicer you are to them the more likely they are to waive a first-time fee.  (I won’t do this for rude people unless my manager specifically asks me to)

I’m sure there are other things out there, but I can’t think of them right now.  What do you think?  Did I miss anything important?