Grow Up: Managing Finances Comes With Being an Adult

Answer: You can, indeed, sign up for such a service. Or you can grow up a little.

Managing our own finances is one of the responsibilities of being an adult. It's not always easy, but doing it is empowering.

By creating a budget, you're thinking about your financial goals and what's most important to you. By monitoring your spending -- "keeping to a budget" in your words -- you ensure that you're making progress toward those goals and not wasting money on stuff that's not important.

The fact that you've been able to pay off credit card debt shows you have some discipline. What you may need is a better tracking system.

Personal finance software such as Quicken or Money can automate much of the process, allowing you to download and analyze your transactions without having to input a lot of data.

Or you can try the old-fashioned route: labeled envelopes. Figure out how much you can spend in each budget category each month, put the cash in the appropriate envelope and stop spending when the money's gone.

If you really can't pull this off, then talk to an accountant or check out the AllPaid service available from MyVesta at www.myvesta.org. This credit counseling service will pay your bills and give you an allowance, just like your parents used to do. It'll cost you, though: You'll pay $295 to set up the service plus a monthly fee that averages about $150.

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Be Careful With

That 401(k) Money

Q: I'm supposed to get a portion of my ex-husband's 401(k) as part of our divorce settlement. If I use some of it now to pay bills, can I put the money back within a certain time limit and not have to pay taxes on it?

A: Once the money comes out of a 401(k), you have 60 days to invest it in an individual retirement account or you'll owe not just taxes but penalties. What's more, the 401(k) administrator will withhold 20% of the check to cover federal taxes, meaning that you'll have to come up with that much extra money if you want to reinvest the cash in an IRA.

The much better course is to have the 401(k) administrator transfer the money directly to an IRA. That way, you don't have to worry about the withholding and coming up with the extra 20% in cash.