Managing Your Own Checkbook

Knowing how to successfully manage your checking account is important. It will give you better control over your day-to-day finances and can help you have more control over the rest of your personal finances.

The key to successful checking account management is organization. With a balanced checking account, you significantly reduce the likelihood that you'll have a check returned for NSF (non-sufficient funds) because you will know what your balance is at all times. If you've ever had a check returned for NSF (bounced a check), you know how expensive, inconvenient and embarrassing it can be. Furthermore, if you bounce a number of checks, you can lose your checking account privileges, negatively impact your credit rating, or in extreme cases, can cause you to be arrested. How can you avoid this?

Managing Your Checkbook

This presentation covers all of the basic steps to manage your checkbook, including using a checkbook register to record your transactions, working with your monthly bank statement, and balancing your account. After you've worked through this presentation and practice activity, you'll be prepared to determine exactly how much you have in your account so you won't bounce checks.

View a printable version of this interactivity.