Oh Jeez, a Fees on Fees Sandwich

Money Idiots don't check their bank statements. We assume everyone is charging us the right amount. We don't really want to face the hard facts of exactly how little money we have. Most of all, we don't want to see all those impulse decisions piled on top of one another, adding up.

Once I saw my best friend's husband, who is a Non-Money Idiot, checking his bank account in the morning. "Doing some banking?" I said. He replied, "I just check my account every morning." Woah.

As part of my Money Idiot Rehab, I thought it might be a good idea to pick up this habit. I made a folder on my Firefox bookmarks toolbar called Daily Check. It's all the things I look at or should look at every day.

The cool thing is that it has this Open All button. So while I'm checking my email, Facebook and news, it automatically opens my banking information and the weather (which I never check either, but should.)

My findings have already been interesting.

Exhibit A: My $2 ATM fee at 901 Fairview. Why does it say $42 and then have another $2 charge? "Oh yeah, banks charge you another fee if you use someone elses ATM. You didn't know that?" No, I didn't. Now I do, and knowing is half the battle. That $2 fee just doubled.