In the past, I didn’t like “paperless” (e-bill). I felt like businesses were trying to goad me into it. Every time I would log into my accounts, I would get the usual message, “go paperless?” I didn’t like it. I always wanted a paper record even though I did my payments online. Looking back, I’ve never looked over old paper statements more then once or twice in years. I still have untouched cancelled checks in a drawer from twenty years ago.
Now paperless is the way I like to operate. Going to the mailbox is no longer as depressing, and my volume of mail is nearly zero except for the usual coupons and flyers.
I use the banking program GnuCash to track my checking account balance at all times, including upcoming payments that are scheduled and making various notes about things.
In my main “business” e-mail account, I have two folders: “e-bill_in” and “e-bill_paid”. Statement notifications and payment-due e-mails go into “e-bill_in”. Once paid, I move the e-mail to “e-bill_paid” along with the payment confirmation e-mail. I still use a paper calendar to see a month at a glance and to cross off things that are done. I don’t find a virtual calendar to be as handy. I use a virtual calendar more for things like birthdays and appointments (colonoscopy on 4-15-14 @ 2pm, for example).
Things that can be paid by a credit card (ISP, cellular, various net services) are paid that way, then I can just pay one credit-card bill monthly.
My little system is working quite well for me at the moment. I can always refine it later. I write all of about five paper checks per year now. It feels weird to have to look for the checkbook.
