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Tempted to fire the family CFO

January 19th, 2008 at 02:02 pm

Aaaargh! As the self-nominated family CFO (chief financial officer), I handle all the bills, do the taxes, keep an eye on investments, and create and monitor the budget. I don't mind the work of these things, as I like to know where everything stands. But I've made a couple big slip-ups in the last few months that have me very aggravated with myself.

I normally use the billpay feature on the BofA website to pay our credit card in full from our checking account. Somehow in December I missed the bill notice and got hit with a $39 late fee. Luckily I happened to download transactions that week and caught it just two days late. Not sure if there will be a finance charge since the bill was paid in full.

Now this month, I set up the bill to be paid on time, but it came out of the wrong checking account (I switched from Wells Fargo to Etrade a few months ago, and have just a nominal sum in the old accounts.) It's been resubmitted twice, for a total of $46 in fees so far. Got to call and straighten that out tomorrow.

The fees won't cause us any hardship, but I hate paying money for nothing.

The big one, of course, is not catching that the state withholdings coming out of my husband's paycheck weren't large enough. Then I missed the deadline for sending the 4th quarter estimate tax payment. So we're going to have some sort of penalty to pay. Aaargh.

My husband would be willing to help more with the bill paying, etc., but I suspect there would just be more confusion over who had done what.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

4 Responses to “Tempted to fire the family CFO”

  1. Ralph Says:
    January 19th, 2008 at 02:13 pm 1200752020
    1200752020

    Well, from your balance sheet I think you are doing a pretty good job, to say the least! Those are relatively small things and it certainly sounds like you will stay on top of it more in the future. Talk about big errors, I think I may have wiped out our eligibility for a tuition tax credit and hurt our financial aid position by withdrawing from my 401k for last fall's tuition bill. But the important thing is to stay on top of things from now on. I sure dread getting started on the taxes and FAFSA.

    I am the CFO of my family and I need to involve my family since we are in for hard times the next few years with college and I need their support. I've always had it in the back of my mind that I need to go all Ross Perot on their butts and sum it up for them in some nice clear charts!

  2. luxlivingfrugalis Says:
    January 19th, 2008 at 03:05 pm 1200755109
    1200755109

    Hi Zetta - I have made some of these mistakes myself and kick myself heartily! Those late fees that buy you nothing - I now consider them EDUCATIONAL FEES. I try to learn from them and make corrections to the plans and record keeping systems to stop them from happening again. About all we can do! We're humans, we make mistakes, so we just make adjustments and try to keep on trucking and not make the same trip-ups again.

    I do like how you've got your Financial To Do list laid out over on the side. I might just steal that idea from you, but I'm pretty private, so mine might be somewhere on a wallsize poster about the Frugalis homestead to remind me to get them done.

  3. monkeymama Says:
    January 19th, 2008 at 03:39 pm 1200757186
    1200757186

    Don't worry. We all make mistakes. Big Grin
    I am the CPA and I underestimated my taxes by $1k! LOL.

  4. Amber Says:
    January 19th, 2008 at 05:57 pm 1200765423
    1200765423

    If you have never been late before give them a call they may waive the fee (BoA). Don't feel bad we all make mistakes it's only a problem , I think when it continues month after month.

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