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Personal Financial Management
Personal Financial Management: Welcome
Welcome
Welcome to Personal Financial Management (PFM), a valuable feature of
Community First’s Online Banking.
PFM can help you understand more about where you spend money, track your
day-to-day financial life, and establish budgets to reach your personal financial
goals. Although PFM is not designed to replace a professional financial advisor, it
can help you gather much of the information you need to review when meeting
with a financial advisor, planning for your financial success, and preparing your
taxes.
The PFM concept has been around for more than twenty years. Software
packages, like Intuit’s Quicken or Microsoft Money, helped collect and categorize
financial transactions with data from different financial accounts. Traditionally,
PFM usage has had limited success, with usage from only a small percentage of
consumers. The biggest challenge has been entering data for transactions since it
was very laborious. And today, with more ways to move money, debit card usage,
and online activity, there are more transactions than ever to enter and track.
Community First is pleased to offer a state-of-the-art Personal Financial
Management service that is fully integrated with Community First’s Online
Banking. And now, with improved processes and strategic technology
partnerships, entering and categorizing transactions is easier than ever.
About This Guide
We have created this guide to help you get the most out of the Personal Financial
Management service. The first section offers helpful definitions and explanations
of the PFM process. The second section walks you through the steps for using
PFM within Community First’s Online Banking.