Quick! While there's still time!

This tip courtesy of Bill Gold, the late columnist for the Washington Post:

On the first ten checks in your checkbook, write "2011" in the year field of the date. (Unless you do all your transactions with cash or cards, you know you will have at least ten checks for the year.) This accomplishes two things. First, it establishes the habit of writing the correct (new) year. Second, you now have ten checks that have the correct year, even if you haven't done step one.

I have been doing this for several years, and it really works!

Saul