Have you ever been going through your bank statement and realized you forgot to enter a deposit or a debit? It doesn’t happen too often these days with automated downloads into your financial software… that is unless your financial software hates you. Yes, I know it’s a computer program that just does what it told, or at least that is what my mind tells me, but my heart knows the truth. “Quicken” hates me. I have upgraded, I have reinstalled, I have checked and double checked my account information, I have spent hours on the phone with their “support” team which I think are all located in India. There is nothing wrong with being from India, but it is very difficult to have confidence in your technical support when they have only just learned English. Does this man have any idea what I am saying? Nope. I decide to hang up and try again. And once again, fourty-five minutes to get to a human being wasted as I arrive once again in India.
All that being said, my current software will download a few choice selections from my financial world, but not my bank statement and information. It used to do it, but one day it just stopped. No, I did not do anything or change anything (as the man from India insisted over and over again). It just stopped and so now I manually enter all of my bills, checks and deposits…. And sometimes I miss one, or two, or… see, now I’m just getting mad at the man from India again.
But the bright side is, it forces me to stay on my toes with my finances. I check and double check to make sure that I have everything entered. Most of my bills are automatically debited so it is really important that I have the necessary funds in my account when they go through. I love the freedom from not worrying that your bill will be late that you get with automation. I love that I don’t ever need stamps. I love that I am protecting my credit by never being late on a payment. I love that I simply check the bill off on my budget and know that the rest will be automatically taken care of. I do NOT love miscalculating what is left in your bank account because you forgot to enter the check for the doctor’s visit last week.
But that is part of financial life. Sometimes we forget. We are not perfect (gasp!) We sometimes forget that we already spent the $20 in birthday money from our Great Aunt and “re-spend” it on something else. And sometimes we forget to write in a deposit… more rarely, but what a glorious surprise when that happens. And yes, after all of my grumbling about Quicken, I was wonderfully surprised on Friday that I had neglected to write in a deposit and we actually had $206 dollars more than we thought! Hallelujah. It truly seemed like a miracle to me, and I know that every good thing comes from God, so I believe that it was. It definitely was a great reminder that good things can even come from hateful computer programs…. Ok, considering Quicken that feels like a stretch… but I will definitely say that my wonderful God works all things for good on our behalf. He can even use Quicken… now if He could just teach me how to use it 🙂