Merry Mingle

I went to a Merry Mingle at Salemtowne this afternoon. Its the annual Christmas gathering of the Towne Club (people on the waiting list for residency at Salemtowne). Lots festive, friendly folks getting to know their future friends. You never meet a stranger at Salemtowne, everyone seems like someone already you know; that's one of the reasons I chose to live there.

Savers will understand

I signed the reservation agreement for my apartment in Salemtowne so I'm now committed to the move. As it is with anyone moving to a CCRC, there is a lot I have to do in preparation for the move. I have to downsize, consider all I need and don't need due to the lifestyle change, and then prepare the house for selling and put it on the market. All that keeps you busy every day, but for some of us, there is another is another concern. The reality of having to spend the money you have saved just for this occasion. When you are a dedicated, lifelong saver, spending is painful and keeps you awake at night second-guessing all your decisions.

Financial Trackers

I like to manage and track my finances myself instead of paying someone a lot of money to do a relatively simple task. For major investments, I use mutual funds that have very low management fees and have better growth over time than that of any financial firm. The online services of major mutual fund groups offer all the information and analysis iI need

For over 20 years, I’ve used Quicken software to track all my finances and keep track or net worth. It’s been very useful, but it's always had a lot of features I don’t need or use. Over the years it’s become slow and prone to problems, but I stuck with it because it was familiar with it. However, under new ownership, it has switched from being an application you could use for years to an overpriced annual online subscription, so in January I began evaluating some top FREE online money managers. I narrowed the choices to three, Mint (owned by Intuit, the old owners of Quicken), Personal Capital, and the Money Manager provided to Truliant Credit Union members (other credit unions also offer money managers to members).

I used all three trackers simultaneously for a few months to evaluate them. Personal Capital ads and phone calls can be annoying and it doesn’t allow you to split transactions into different categories or delete them. If you don’t need to track your spending closely, then it's okay. Truliant Money Management is easy to use and has no ads. It lets you split transactions but not delete them. Mint has ads but they are unobtrusive. You can split transactions and delete them. It automatically updates your home and vehicle values. Although the Truliant tracker is a good choice, overall, all I like Mint the best and have been using it as my sole financial tracker for the last 6 months.