Accountability

Staci

One of the beautiful things about being single is that you're accountable only to yourself. If you want to eat Neapolitan ice cream  straight out of the carton for dinner, you can.

Accountability for your finances is another story. I learned good financial habits early and always have been borderline OCD  when it comes to money. When I got my first checking account at age 17—back in the day when you could withdraw five dollars from an ATM—my mother made it abundantly clear that I would be responsible for balancing that account to the penny.

I took her seriously, but the accountability was—and still is—all mine.

My parents and most of my married friends have joint accounts —and therefore, joint accountability. My mom and stepdad actually have weekly “board meetings” where they are supposed to discuss their income and expenses. Inevitably, though, they just argue over who didn't write down what in the checkbook or who gets to choose the next check design (they're old school  that way).

Board meetings at my house are less eventful. I answer to myself, so if I make a bad financial decision (which does happen) or fail to eat the Neapolitan ice cream in even stripes of vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate (OK, I'm borderline OCD about some other things, too), only I'm to blame.

Interestingly enough, there's been a lot of discussion—including this NPR story  from February—about whether blogging about your own personal finances influences accountability. The interviewee, Joan Goldwasser of Kiplinger's Personal Finance , likens it to Weight Watchers® or Alcoholics Anonymous®: If you put your successes and failures out there for everyone to see, you're forced to confront them.  And one of the blogs mentioned in that story, Blogging Away Debt , recently addressed the issue in this post: Who Knows About Your Debt? 

What do you think—are you more likely to be responsible for your finances when you're accountable to someone else, whether it's a family member or the blogosphere?  Or is being accountable to yourself motivation enough?