Information is Key to Financial Freedom
| May 20th, 2008When it comes to the all to elusive goal of financial freedom; information is key!
Some of you may be scratching your head and saying I thought income and spending less than you brought in was the key? It’s a large part of the puzzle but if you aren’t managing your funds and tracking where they are going how will you ever patch up some leaks in your financial “ship”?
Knowing where your money is going, not going and how much you have at any given time are all key to being financially successful. It’s easy to spend like an idiot but still think you’re doing ok until that credit card bill or unexpected car repair smacks you into the poor house if you haven’t planned. Even if you have a huge nest egg if you spend without recourse you won’t keep it for long as chances are you had a different mental attitude when you amassed the funds compared to when you depleted them.
In 2001 I used to track all my income, expenses everything to the dollar almost. Whenever I’d receive change I’d write it off as rest in change. Change was the only thing I did not account. At anytime I could have a graph / pie chart showing me where my money was, how much was coming in, out, what my major expenses were etc. Since building a good cushion I stopped using the same techniques I had originally and what should not be to my surprise my funds have depleted.
It’s easy to spend $5, $10-$20 here and there and if you don’t keep track you really have no clue how much you’ve wasted. I’m starting to track all my income/expenditures again. A huge bonus of doing this is that since you have to mark it down you’re less likely to spend impulsively and by following you will only have 1 month of total shock. You add up your lunches for the month and boom $200+ or other expenses that are draining your account; you may have 5-10 that equal $50-$125 a month… That’s a lot of money when you add it all up.
Point of this post is track your funds if you wish to be in charge of them. A fool and his / her money shall soon part is true. If accumulating money and holding onto it was the path of least resistance in this world we’d all be rich on beach somewhere wouldn’t we?
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Yes. Tracking all of your expenses is a great idea. I have used quick books in combination with using a debit card. This makes it real easy to come up with exactly where your money is going. I currently run an online business for Global Resorts Network.
This not only helps my income but saves a bunch on travel.
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Well i used my article for making money Today without much effort.
I like to think of expenses right now as little as possible.
THAT said I agree totally with your blog and need to find the gumption to look at things a bit more.
I totally relate to your experience of having started out tracking down to almost the penny and now being very lax. Part laziness but also life can get very busy and bad habits develop.
Thanks for great blog. I linked the article I mention in the url box so it will be in name box. I’d love your input. IF you want me to add you as resource I ‘d be happy to revise it.