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How to making checking all your finances easy

If you’re outside the US there are very few budgeting services that can connect to your bank accounts, loan accounts, credit card accounts and automatically update your budget software.

That doesn’t bother me, because I like to reconcile my budget daily with my accounts; it helps me stay motivated and gives me a sense of control.

I have accounts with 4 different financial services providers and it quickly becomes a pain having to login, go through the security, and get your balances every day just to make sure your budget program is in line with your actual finances.

So my solution to the problem is to sign up with a service like ANZ MoneyManager. This one’s for Australians, but the service is based on Yodlee so everybody can employ a similar method if they like.

Once you’ve signed up you just enter each of the login details of your existing accounts (they can be with anybody of course, not just ANZ) and then every time you login you’ll get an up-to-date balance of them all…all on one screen and in one place. Brilliant!

I do that every morning. If something doesn’t match up, which occassionally happens then I can either look at the transition history straight in the ANZ MoneyManager or by going to that provider’s site. Too easy.

Using something like this will make reconciling your budget so much easier. Well worth doing.