Banking Changes and Planning

Last month, my partner and I decided to switch banks. We'd been with the same locally-owned bank for about six years, but decided to bail when a huge multi-national bought them out. Even though most of the same tellers and managers were scheduled to remain, we decided to move because we didn't want the profits from our money to be funneled away from our city, county and state and placed in the pockets of another country.

So we moved to a locally-owned credit union.

The move has been a pretty strange experience. We've received great service from the member service representatives who opened our business and personal accounts, and they've done a nice job of making sure that our accounts were opened correctly. A couple of the member service representatives already know us on a first-name basis, so if we need something, we can call them and they'll take care of things for us.

Sadly, the tellers don't know us yet. The other day, after I'd closed out my last account at my old bank, I came in to deposit about $500. I was a little nonplussed when they asked me for ID when I was making a cash deposit.

Say what?

"We need your ID to make sure the money gets into the right account," the teller told me.

I sighed and handed her my ID. I had a pre-printed deposit slip, shouldn't that be enough proof of the right account number?

Whatever.

So now that I've got my accounts all set up and ready-to-go, and I've enabled online banking and synchronization with Quicken, I can sit in front of my computer, click buttons, and obsess over my checking account balances.

Great.

Now obsessing over my checking account is fun and all, and it makes me feel in control as I watch my individual checks clear, but it's also a little depressing. As the month wears on, my checking account balance dips lower and lower, and I feel less and less encouraged about my financial progress.

So rather than just stare at my bank account balances, I'm trying to put together a targeted plan. With that in mind, I have three goals in mind:

1. Create An Emergency Savings Account - Although many financial advisers will tell you to pay off your debt first because of the accruing finance charges, it seems to me to be the most prudent step to get at least a small emergency fund together before I start hacking away at the debt. Paying off debt won't do me any good if my client pays late, and then I'm stuck trying to pay all my bills with credit cards and cash advances.
   
   
2. Increase My Income - Although I do have a financially sound business, my partner and I are both starting to tire of the work we do. Eventually, we would like to move on to other things, so we are trying to make that transition slowly. We are hoping that by doing things to bring in "extra" money, we'll improve our financial situation and easy that transition to new careers.
   
   
3. Pay Off My Debt - This, of course, will be both the simplest and most difficult step. It's simple in that it's clear what needs to be done, but difficult in that it is going to require a significant amount of self-discipline to get it done.
   

Of course these three goals are just for starters. I'm going to need to also work on things like spending less, saving more for retirement, and making better investment choices. But for now, these are the big three.