I, too, have paid over $100 in overdraft protection fees this past week, and that was entirely my fault because I had a check to deposit but didn't make the time to do it for a couple of days. "stupid tax", as I call it.
Money management is always the land of trouble for me. I have been using MINT.COM for the last 90 days. It isn't perfect and it is really aimed at typical consumer level spending, but it does help track and point out exactly how much money you have spent in each category. I'll have to check out yodlee.
The real secret is, of course, to spend money slower than you make it. This can be hard, especially when you get some customers who don't pay you on time. I can remember several times over the years when I had in excess of $25k in solid receivables, but was rolling change for gas money and eating ramen.
Early this year, for the first time in over a decade, I had to borrow some money from a family member because I ran out of cash, but once again had a staggering amount of receivables that I was owed.
I generally have about 2 months income in receivable all of the time these days, which feels good. I am planning to take some time off in September, and I have to plan out my workload and billing correctly so that I don't end up with a cash-flow shortage at the end of the year.
I have a couple of small credit cards these days, after a decade of having no credit cards at all. I generally try to keep them paid off entirely, and use them for travel expenses and a little bit of a cushion when checks are not arriving on schedule.
I really need to spend more (well, ANY!) time marketing and looking for work. I don't even have business cards of any kind, and thus far (the last two plus years) I have obtained all of my business via word of mouth, and my biggest customers have been folks who I did work for before my own ISPland adventures started (dialmaine, acadia.net, downeast.net). I don't know how much longer my luck will hold out in that area, and I really ought to be doing something about it. But, I also billed out over 200 hours last month, and didn't have the time.
no subject
I, too, have paid over $100 in overdraft protection fees this past week, and that was entirely my fault because I had a check to deposit but didn't make the time to do it for a couple of days. "stupid tax", as I call it.
Money management is always the land of trouble for me. I have been using MINT.COM for the last 90 days. It isn't perfect and it is really aimed at typical consumer level spending, but it does help track and point out exactly how much money you have spent in each category. I'll have to check out yodlee.
The real secret is, of course, to spend money slower than you make it. This can be hard, especially when you get some customers who don't pay you on time. I can remember several times over the years when I had in excess of $25k in solid receivables, but was rolling change for gas money and eating ramen.
Early this year, for the first time in over a decade, I had to borrow some money from a family member because I ran out of cash, but once again had a staggering amount of receivables that I was owed.
I generally have about 2 months income in receivable all of the time these days, which feels good. I am planning to take some time off in September, and I have to plan out my workload and billing correctly so that I don't end up with a cash-flow shortage at the end of the year.
I have a couple of small credit cards these days, after a decade of having no credit cards at all. I generally try to keep them paid off entirely, and use them for travel expenses and a little bit of a cushion when checks are not arriving on schedule.
I really need to spend more (well, ANY!) time marketing and looking for work. I don't even have business cards of any kind, and thus far (the last two plus years) I have obtained all of my business via word of mouth, and my biggest customers have been folks who I did work for before my own ISPland adventures started (dialmaine, acadia.net, downeast.net). I don't know how much longer my luck will hold out in that area, and I really ought to be doing something about it. But, I also billed out over 200 hours last month, and didn't have the time.