{"id":1049,"date":"2020-08-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qa.simplifimoney.com\/blog\/quicken-stories-nancy-colt\/"},"modified":"2024-11-18T10:21:27","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T18:21:27","slug":"quicken-stories-nancy-colt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/quicken-stories-nancy-colt\/","title":{"rendered":"Quicken Stories: Nancy Colt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Quicken user Nancy Colt has a head for numbers. When she first married Mike, her spontaneous and creative husband, he had multiple checkbooks scattered across their home and office and a sporadic trail of receipts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nancy first bought Quicken to make their joint taxes easier. As the couple prospered and their asset portfolio became more complex, Quicken helped her watch over their financial holdings and keep their spending within reasonable limits.<style type=\"text\/css\"> &amp;lt;p>.node-type-blog-post .field-name-body blockquote {&amp;lt;br \/>   color: #333;&amp;lt;br \/>   margin: 20px 0;&amp;lt;br \/> }&amp;lt;br \/> .node-type-blog-post .field-name-body blockquote p {&amp;lt;br \/>   font-size: 18px;&amp;lt;br \/>   line-height: 28px;&amp;lt;br \/> }&amp;lt;br \/> .node-type-blog-post .field-name-body blockquote p:last-child:after {&amp;lt;br \/>   bottom: 0;&amp;lt;br \/> }&amp;lt;\/p> <\/style><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Getting organized<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen Mike and I got married, I asked him, \u2018Where\u2019s the checkbook?\u2019 He told me, \u2018I have one in the Jeep, one in the boat, one in the drawer \u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Nancy and Mike, the attraction of opposites is a given. But their bookkeeping styles were just as different as their personalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI couldn\u2019t understand how Mike was keeping track of his accounts with so many different checkbooks all over the place. I asked him, \u2018Where do you keep your records? How do you know what you have in the bank?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His answer? He would call up his banker and ask. But Nancy understood the ins and outs of cash flow\u2014and checks that hadn\u2019t cleared yet. She knew that what they had in the bank today might not reflect what would be in there tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMy career has almost always been in numbers,\u201d she said. \u201cPayroll, expenses, taxes. I needed to get a better read on things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Making tax prep easier<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The whole reason I started using Quicken was to categorize transactions for tax purposes.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nancy bought Quicken to organize her own accounts for tax season\u2014choosing to file separately in their first year of marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen I was young and single, I could barely afford a computer,\u201d she told us. \u201cMy accounts were very simple. When it came time to do taxes together, Mike said it was going to be a three-month project with all these complications of looking things up in different places. I said, \u2018No way.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nancy used Quicken to organize her own accounts, and she filed her taxes separately that year. She\u2019s been using Quicken ever since, but now they file their taxes together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Our taxes are so easy now because I can pull categories on one sheet of paper and send it to our accountant. Anything that\u2019s tax-related for us. It\u2019s just made my life so easy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Managing spending with categories<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is what comes into the house, and this is what can go out of the house\u2014with me still saving money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As soon as she began entering transactions into the software, Quicken offered up category suggestions. Nancy saw the power of those categories immediately, and she started using Quicken to keep track of their monthly spending from day one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt can be quite an eye-opener,\u201d she told us. \u201cWhen you set those budgets up, those little things, even purchasing a sweater or blouse here or there, it falls into that category. Even though it was on sale and it was a really good price, it\u2019s still money that went out the door. If you don\u2019t track those things, you don\u2019t have any idea where your money\u2019s going. And you don\u2019t realize it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nancy and Mike don\u2019t budget everything down to the penny, but Quicken helps them pay better attention to how much money is going out the door, making sure they\u2019re keeping that spending in line with their long-term goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They also use Quicken to set their budget for gifts each year. It\u2019s easy to lose track of your spending when you\u2019re enjoying holidays with your kids or doting on your grandchildren. Quicken helps Nancy keep a handle on those expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Growing net worth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;When you look at the bottom line of what your net worth is, when you have all your accounts in there, for me it was a giant motivator.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nancy used Quicken to set a budget that allowed the couple to continue to grow their assets. She made sure they were adding to their savings first every month, before they started spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSetting my sights on our total net worth made me do certain things. You get your paycheck, and it made me do automatic withdrawals from that paycheck into savings and money market accounts. Then, when I\u2019d get a big enough cushion, I\u2019d turn around and invest that money into something else so I was a little more diversified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By focusing on growing their investments, and budgeting their money to make sure they weren\u2019t spending too much even as their income increased, Nancy was able to ensure their comfortable retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was bound and determined that that number at the bottom was going to get bigger and bigger, no matter what it took for me to do it.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Quicken is a wonderful tool to help you to know where your money is and whether you\u2019re using it wisely. I love it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019d like to thank Nancy for taking the time to speak with us and share her story.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We believe every Quicken customer has a unique story to share. If you have a Quicken story, we\u2019d love to hear more about how you use Quicken and your favorite tips and tricks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re interested in participating in an interview, please contact us at <a href=\"mailto:interviews@quicken.com\">interviews@quicken.com<\/a>. Selected stories will be featured on our blog post and social media and will receive a special gift from the Quicken team. We look forward to hearing your story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quicken user Nancy Colt has a head for numbers. When she first married Mike, her spontaneous and creative husband, he had multiple checkbooks scattered across their home and office and a sporadic trail of receipts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":1050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"69","_seopress_titles_title":"Quicken Stories: Nancy Colt | Quicken","_seopress_titles_desc":"We believe every Quicken customer has a unique story to share. Nancy Colt has a head for numbers. Her husband, Mike, is spontaneous and creative. Nancy uses Quicken to watch over their financial assets, to make their taxes easy, and to keep their household budget on track.","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-finance"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/QuickenNancyColt3.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1049"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4452,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049\/revisions\/4452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}