Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

I’m not kidding. Everyone who is tracking their money ought to have a software program to look at their accounts. Unless you are an anal retentive accountant who keeps old school ledgers, I doubt you balance your accounts by hand and keep it up to date all the time.

I have got a serious cautionary tale for you. Full windmilling arms and all. This Chicken Little has a true story to tell.

Once upon a time, (this past March) Chicken Little got a bonus. (hooray!)

Chicken Little’s old miserable place of employment did not take a 401k contribution from her bonus check or give a corporate match. (boo!)

But her new merry place of employment is generous and takes a contribution and offers the corporate match. (yay!)

Chicken Little, being the diligent little scratcher, runs home with her paystub and enters in all the numbers from her bonus paycheck into Quicken.

A few days later, Chicken Little’s 401k plan administrator buys new mutual fund shares with the fresh influx of cash. (mmmm, tasty!)

While her new shares start to grow and grow, Chicken Little minds her own business. A few weeks later, Chicken Little decides to check her garden of 401k money and opens her 401k account to key in her bonus check transactions.

As she inputs data into Quicken and sees there is a problem. (oh no!)

For some reason, there is a cash balance in her 401k account. (how strange!)

Chicken Little, being a wee ditzy, decides to let it slide. (silly!)

She lets is slide for weeks and weeks. Many paychecks come through (yay!) and she creates her 401k mutual fund transactions and still there is a mysterious cash balance. (weird!)

Eventually Chicken Little calls the 401k company and complains. (cue scary music)

The friendly agent (surprise!) takes the information and promises to investigate.

Two long, agonizing weeks pass, and Chicken Little’s desk phone rings at work. (hello?)

It’s the 401k company! (wow!) They have investigated the purchases around the time of the bonus check and indeed, they only received X amount of money. (boo!)

Fear not though, the friendly agent has a plan. (yay!) He recommends calling the payroll department and asking them about their transfer of funds.(yay!)

So Chicken Little contacts payroll and the friendly lady says bring your paystub down and we’ll investigate!(yay!)

Chicken Little is still on pins and needles waiting for the friendly payroll lady, but at least she has her Quicken to tell her when her accounts are not balancing properly and there is a ~$70.00 shortfall of money in her 401k account, which throws off her net worth reporting on her blog. (boo!)

I know. Very silly. But it’s true. I never would have caught the error if Quicken’s running account balance hadn’t been thrown off week after week by a suspiciously familiar amount of money. (It just so happens to be the amount of corporate matching I got last year on each check.) After about 2 months I decided there was definitely something wrong and not just me messing up my data entry.

So far so good. There is an acknowledged discrepancy from my paystub and what was received by the 401k firm. I still have to follow up with the payroll department. I hope they compensate me at the current rate of shares for the lost investment, but I will be happy if they just make sure I get the money that’s missing.

Go get a personal finance software program like Quicken or MS Money. I don’t think YNAB is good enough. Budgeting isn’t enough here. Neither is something like Yodlee which lets you view your balances all at once.

You really should have something that shows you transfers between accounts to ensure they actually balance out. If I couldn’t see that there was a balancing/reconciliation problem between my paycheck deposit into my checking account and my 401K account, I could have lost ~$70.00 for good. As it is, I have a chance at recovering it. That’s a pair of cheap tickets to the opera, or else a single really good seat for one!