MONEY OBEDIENCE

If this is your first time using MoneyObedience, begin by clicking on "Basic Information" in the menu bar to the left. This gets you to a page where you can enter some information about yourself and other members of your family. Click on the bar "About Me" and a data page will open. There you can enter the information required. Click on all bars of that page to enter additional information about your spouse, your dependents, and so on. Don't forget to click the "Save" button when you are done entering any data. Once you have entered and saved your "Basic Information", click on "Income" on the menu bar to your left and add all incomes that are available to your household.

After that, you can then enter any other information in an order you wish, but we suggest that you fill out the questionnaire in "Financial Habits" first. Much of the analysis you will receive in the reports are tailored to your personal circumstances, which we get to know when you answer the questions in the questionnaire. We advise you to get your "significant other" to fill out his or her own questionnaire if you are married or living with someone. We will store their answers separately, not with yours, but their information will be useful in some sections of our analysis of your household and personal financial situation.

If you want our advice on what you should do next, after you answer the questions in the questionnaire we suggest you enter your assets and your debts by clicking on "Assets" and "Liabilities". On each of these data pages you get to a page on which you can click on "Add an asset" or "Add a liability". Choose a type of asset or liability you want to enter and fill out as much information as you know. When you have entered all your assets and liabilities you can click on "Net Worth Report" in the left menu bar under "Reports" to request and read your net worth report. This is the starting point for your financial analysis, and you will see what we mean when we say we tailor all our suggestions and analysis to your personal circumstances.

Along with the net worth report you can request other reports such as the Debt Report and the Mortgage Report. You can then work on your retirement plan, your financial goals, and you can check up on your life insurance.

In the left menu bar on each page of MoneyObedience.com you will see all the data menu choices where you can enter information. For example, when you click on "Income" you will get to a page on which you can add any income that you want to consider in your financial analysis. You would also click on "Income" if you want to change some information about an income source you have entered before. If you click on "Assets" you will get to a page, on which you can enter your assets or change the information about assets you have entered before.

The left menu bar includes links to the various MoneyObedience reports. Click on any one report title and you can read up on this particular area of your financial affairs. If you wish, you can print a report by clicking "print this report". When you want to save a report that includes all data you want to use for that report, please click on "save this report" to store it. We will refer to such saved reports later on when we make comparisons further down the road, say, in a year's time.

Each page of MoneyObedience.com will also show you menu options to the right of the page. There you can find help that is specific to each data entry page. You can always click on the right hand menu's "Get help with this page" to get information about how to work with any given page.

You can also get help with entering data by moving your mouse directly over the question mark next to the box where you enter data. A short instruction should pop up to tell you what kind of information you should enter and in what format you should do so (in cases where format is an issue). For example, when you enter an income and you move the mouse to the box next to "Source of Income", you will see a note that says, "Where does this income come from?" Click on any of the choices in the drop-down boxes to indicate where the income you are entering comes from.

In some instances we derive numbers from data you have already entered. For example, when you work on your retirement plan we will add up all your current retirement assets, if you have entered your assets before you work on your retirement plan. You do have the option to change the number we come up with by entering a different number in the box provided, but we suggest that you use the number that we calculate.

When you draw up a financial plan for yourself, you have to rely on some assumptions about the future. MoneyObedience.com works with generally accepted assumptions, which you can review and, in some cases, change.

If you should need to change your password or email address, click on "my account" at the top right of the home page when you are logged in. Choose "Change Password" or "Change E-Mail Address".

If you have any difficulty with any page you use, with any task you work on, or with any report you receive, we would like to hear from you so that we can make MoneyObedience.com work better for you. Just click on "Contact Us" to let us know about any problems you may encounter or questions you may have.