Why You Want to Track Your Money
If you’re like myself when I first started looking at my finances, I felt overwhelmed. I didn’t think that I would be able to get myself to a point of being able to look at my finances and feel good.I just wanted to hide my head in the sand and ignore what was going on with them. I kept hearing “what you track, grows”. For the life of me, I couldn’t see how tracking my debts and what I had for my outflow of money would assist with growing my net worth until I changed my perspective around.Once I started tracking my finances on a weekly basis and then upping it to a daily basis, I was able to see what others were talking about. My net worth started to grow and I started to feel less and less overwhelmed. I had started to develop my own plans and recognize my spending patterns. This allowed me to see what triggered higher spending days versus low spend days.Today, we are going to discuss some of the reasons why you want to start your own habit of tracking your money.
Get Your Head Out of the Sand and See the Whole Picture
By starting consistent tracking, you are able to really see the whole picture. You can see how much debt you have and how much the payments are each time. Once you tune into your finances, you are able to see how long it will take you to become financially free.You will no longer where your money has gone.You will no longer worry about how you are going to pay for that birthday gift or Christmas.Starting to track, allows you to see where you have the biggest spend and you can adjust accordingly. It allows you to really start to see spending patterns.
Allows You to Spot Trends
The coffee a day. Drinks with friends. Shopping sprees.Do you know when your spending is the most prevalent?Do you tend to spend more during the weeks that you get paid or your off-weeks? Is there a time of month you spend more?All of these questions start to get answered when you start to track your spending. You can start to see a pattern that starts to form and you can notice triggers.Tracking spending is much like a nutrition journal. You can identify triggers and emotions that happened when you completed the purchase and how you felt afterwards. I like to include my tracking with my journaling so I can get a full picture of what happened that day.Once you know what your patterns are, you can start to reflect and adjust accordingly. If it’s a pattern that you cannot break cold turkey, you can start to break it down piece by piece.
Allows you to see what is and what isn’t working
This point is especially important when tracking business financials. By tracking your financials, you can test out new markets to see what is and what isn’t working.Now don’t get me wrong, this applies to personal finances as well.Cut your grocery budget in half but now you’re eating out more? Has that helped or hindered your finances?Taking lunch every day to work instead of eating out?Stopped the coffee a day out?By tracking your spending, you are able to see what is making an impact on your finances and how it is doing so. When sitting down to track your finances, you can include items you debated purchasing but didn’t. Record how it made you feel and why you chose not to do so. By including your emotions, you are able to connect your finances to a bigger purpose.Tracking your financials coming in and going out, is a task that is hard to start. But once you start and continue it consistently, as they say, the magic is in the pudding. You will start to shift your outlook and your net worth will start to increase. By having a greater sense of awareness, you are able to really make your finances something you want to work with consistently.I’d love to know, do you track your finances? Why or why not? Let me know in the comments below.Xo,KathleenYour Financial Abundance CoachP.S. Have you gotten your free How to Create New Money Habits Checklist yet? If not, click here to get yours today!