I have at least a dozen calendars that I manage and half of those are for managing money. I’m going to focus on the money calendars for this post so let’s get started.
Bond Calendar
The first money calendar is my bond calendar. There are several components to this calendar. First there is the US Treasury auction data calendar data which consists of this stuff. It’s important for me to know when the auctions for various bonds are going to be held so I can prepare funds for a purchase.
After an auction I then become an owner of the bonds that I buy and they all have interest and redemption periods so I need to track and forecast when the money is coming in and when the bond will redeem so I can prepare to buy a new one. I bought some 2 Year Notes almost two years ago and they are now close to redemption and those two years flew by!
Dividend Calendar
The second money calendar I have is a dividend calendar for my dividend stocks. Some equities pay monthly dividends but most pay quarterly and a few pay annually. Most of my dividend stocks are on DRIP (dividend re-investment programs) so the main thing I do here is to make sure that I received the dividend and that the funds were used to buy more stock. There have been times when the dividend didn’t arrive when it was supposed to and I had to call the broker to find out why. Most of the time it’s a bank holiday issue or the funds weren’t wired early enough in the day to make it in but it does happen.
Options Calendar
One way I squeeze extra revenue from stocks is to sell calls on equities I own and those are usually anywhere from 5 to 45 days out so I need to know the expiry period for my calls. Sometimes when I want to buy an equity at a lower cost than currently trading, I will sell naked (cash secured) puts so I need to track the expiry date to prepare for the margin call if and when that comes.
Paycheck Calendar
I have a calendar entry to track my job paycheck. It may sound trivial but there have been mistakes with my paycheck in the past either with deductions, the pay amount, bonus pay amount or other issues. I like to have a copy of my paycheck stub and the only way to get it is to download it after pay day.
Real Estate Rentals Calendar
I am a landlord with rental properties so I need to track incoming rent payments to ensure I’m getting money due me and if not, take appropriate action. Most of this work is done by the property management firm but I at least need to make sure the money flow stays on target.
Bills Calendar
I wish it was all just money coming in but I have bills to pay so I have another calendar that tracks when payments are due for various services. This one is actually the easiest to manage because I charge most of my bills to two credit cards then pay those but there are a few other miscellaneous things that can’t be paid by credit card like my landscaper, maid, and some utilities.
No Broker Calendars
My life would be a whole lot easier if Fidelity, Morgan Stanley and Charles Schwab had calendars that automatically tracked a lot of this stuff but they are all too lazy to do it. As a result, I have dozen+ calendars that I manage on multiple platforms to stay on top of it all.
Share The Wealth
Do you have an awesome calendar tool that can manage all of these money calendars? If so, share the wealth and let me know in the comments.