Do you know how much money you've got?

One of the things I like to do is keep track of my own personal finances. Knowing how much money you have at any one time, what your debts are (in my case, credit card balances), what your outgoings are, etc., has several advantages:

• You can foresee and more easily overcome cash-flow problems, enabling you to avoid those ‘a bit short this month’ problems.

• You can spot unwelcome trends in your spending patterns, and plan better for the future.

• You have the pleasure of being able to track your wealth growing.

I highly recommend it. Currently I use GnuCash, primarily because it’s the only mature accounting software available for Linux. Quicken and Microsoft Money seem to be viable alternatives for Windows, although you will then have to suffer the treadmill of paid-for upgrades (I used Money until a few years ago, and moved away from it for that reason).