TRACK YOUR MONEY
Is it worth it to track your money?
To start with the obvious, the more you pay attention to something, the more control you have of it. Knowledge is helpful. That’s a pretty basic truth right?
So, pay attention to your money if you want more of it. If you track your money and know what you spend daily, you can see where your money goes.
You’re a funnel between your income and spending. You can either let most of the money you get pass through you and never really have any extra, or you can focus on trying to make more money come in and less go out. Savings can add up quickly once you get in the habit. But to be able to change your habits, you need to know what your habits are. If you track your money and know where you’re spending it, you have more information to make choices. Information is power. Improving your finances is pretty simple.
STICK TO BASICS, THEY’RE UNIVERSAL
If you want to be good at sports, you learn about and practice sports. If you want to be good at dancing, you learn about and practice dancing. Within that sentence you can substitute any topic you like and it still remains true doesn’t it? Sometimes it can help to oversimplify things, so how about the following notion. We’re born. We learn about stuff. We die. You’ve done the first one. You’re currently in that middle phase. Enjoy it all you can before the latter comes. The more you learn about your money and how you’re using it, the easier it’ll be to build it up.
4 WAYS YOU SHOULD TRACK YOUR MONEY
1.) How much do you make?
2.) Where do you make money from?
3.) How much do you spend?
4.) Where do you spend it?
Everyday you wake up and you have 24 hours, just like everyone else, to do something. What you choose to do with your time will either help improve your life, keep it where it is, or make it worse. You choose. But know that you have the choice. As Mel Robbins points out, it only takes 5 seconds to change your life. Every 5 seconds, you make a new decision, or at least you can, if you want to. If you track your money and start becoming more aware of it, you can do more to grow it.
Whether you buy a notebook for a dollar at the store and write down the cost of every purchase you make each day or download an app for your phone, there are plenty of ways to start tracking where you’re spending your money. Do what works for you. It doesn’t have to be a complicated spreadsheet. Just take 5 minutes of free time in your day to write down how much you spent and where/what you spent it on. In a few months you’ll have a much better idea in your mind of how you’re really using your money and ways to change to keep more of it.
You should be choosing your thoughts and behavior, not blindly falling victim to random habits. Never give up your right to choose. It’ll make a huge difference in your life.
Stop waiting, start choosing.
Track your money.
