Treat Your Money Like No One Else

To Do Better with Money Track Your Spending

If you are not tracking your income and expenses, you can’t manage your money effectively. To do better with money track your spending.

Tracking your spending, on the surface, appears to be straightforward and simple, but it can be a complex process and quite difficult.

It takes consistency to track your spending which is the hard part. And tracking your spending can be overwhelming.

To deal with this difficulty I tell clients to get into the habit of consistently recording your expenses. Use can use any type of log or spreadsheet, even your phone, to record expenses.

Whatever you use as your log, even if it’s a piece of paper, every time you receive money, you should record it in your log.

Whether it’s from a paycheck or gambling winnings, record it in the log. And every time you spend money, whether it is a bill or that cup of morning coffee, record it.

Track Your Spending Every time, every time, every time!

Tracking your spending makes your spending more real. You will begin to see it. You will see it come in and go out and begin to see it as a tool to help you reach financial goals.

It will give you a sense of control.

Your awareness of your money and your behavior with money will sharpen, allowing you to make changes which will improve your financial situation.

This is an important money skill.

Here are a few tips to help you in tracking your spending:

Make it a routine. Once you get into the habit of tracking your spending, I promise, it will get easier. Always, do what works for you. No one system or way is perfect for everybody. The important thing is to track your spending. How you do is up to you!
Be more careful with transactions that are easily forgotten. Some transactions, online transactions, transactions without a receipt, can be quickly forgotten. Take special steps to remember these.
Get a receipt for everything. There are not too many places where you can spend money and not get a receipt. If they do not give you one, ask for one. Additionally, make it a habit of putting all your receipts in one place so that you do not forget where they are.
It is best to record your transactions daily. Although you can track expenses once a week, you may find this hard to do. By tracking expenses daily, you do not run into the problems that you would by tracking them weekly such as I can’t remember a transaction or can’t find a receipt, etc.

Recording expenses will make you more connected to what you spend.

It will make you think more about each purchase, and you will begin to see if your purchases line up with your values. This may help you to keep unnecessary spending under control.

Tracking your spending is a rewarding process.

It will paint a picture of your spending habits as they exist and not as you think they exist. You can then use this information to create a spending plan, or, at the least, to serve as a picture of where your money actually goes.

How do you track your spending? Share your thoughts and subscribe to the GoldenRules Blog and learn how to create a winning spending plan for you and your family.

Three Money management Tips for 2022

It’s still closer to the beginning of the year than the end, and a great time to prepare and plan to manage your money better in 2022. One of the reasons why people fail with their finances is poor planning. Here is how it usually goes…

It is the first of the year and you decide that you want to manage your
money better, and you are going to budget your money. So, you make out a
spending plan and before you know it, because of poor planning, you spent more at the grocery store in the first three weeks of the month than you planned in your budget. Therefore, you get frustrated and quit all the while
thinking that this budget stuff just does not work for you.

Below are three tips to help you manage you money in 2022.

Track Your spending

One of the most important things in managing your finances is tracking where
your money is going. You have to know where and how much money you are
spending to effectively manage it. The word is effective. You can manage your money without tracking it, that’s what most of us do, but to really manage it effectively you got to know where you are spending your money. Managing money is about behavior and tracking your money allows you to see behavior(s) that needs to be changed.

I dare you to track spending for a month or so. I mean really write down and keep track of every penny that you spend and where you spend it. Once you do this you will see places where you will be able to spend less and save more. And you will see where you can change your behavior with money.

Develop Goals for Your Finances to Manage Money in 2022

First things first and goals point the way to first. Everything starts somewhere and like laying bricks if the first course is straight, we know the wall will be straight. If we start in the right way we can finish in the right way. You must have goals for your finances. Develop some S.M.A.R.T. goals (Specific, Measureable, Attainable/Actionable, and Realistic, with some Time frame). If you make your goals SMART you will be more adept to achieve them. Goals are like a mission statement in business. They tell you what you are going to do and how consistently. When you are in doubt, or maybe need direction as to what to do with your finances, your goals will point the way.

So, sit down this month and think about what you want your finances to look like, and what you want to do with your money. Then write down some SMART financial goals for 2022.

Plan your Spending to Manage Money in 2022

Now comes the fun part — spending your money. Call your budget a spending plan, That is, a plan to spend your money. One of the three things money is good for is spending (the other two are saving and giving by the way). So, it’s okay to spend it, it’s yours and you worked hard for it, I just want you to plan to spend it.

Next, take all the information from the month worth of tracking your spending and plan the next month based on what you spent that month. For example, if you spent $400 at the grocery store last month, you will probably spend around $400 next month. At least you will be a lot closer than just picking a number out of the air. Remember, all a spending plan is, is an estimate of how you will spend your money. The better you can make the estimate, the better the spending plan.

By setting goals for your finances, tracking your spending, and planning to spend your money, you can manage your money better in 2022.

Manage Money Better By Tracking Spending

If you want to manage money better, it helps to know where you are spending your money and where it’s going. One way to do this is to track spending.

Tracking your spending, on the surface, appears to be pretty simple, but it can be a complex process and quite difficult.

That is because it takes consistency to track your spending effectively and in a way that helps you manage your money.

Below are several tips to help you track your spending and manage your money better.

• Make it a routine. Once you get into the habit of tracking your spending, it will become easier. And always, do what works for you. No one system is perfect for everybody. So, maybe you track your spending Monday after work or Tuesdays, before work, or maybe Sunday after church. Weekly, sit down with all your receipts or bank statements and record how much you spent, where you spent the money, and what for. For example, I spent $1.18 at McDonalds for a sausage biscuit. The important thing is to track your spending. How you do this is up to you!

• Be more careful with transactions that are easily forgotten. Some transactions, online transactions, transactions without a receipt, can be quickly forgotten. Take special steps to remember these.

• Get a receipt for everything. There are not too many places that will not give you a receipt. If they do not give you one, ask for one. Additionally, if you are keeping receipts, make it a habit of putting all your receipts in one place so that you know where to find them and do not forget where you put them.

• It is best to record your transactions daily. Although you can track expenses once a week, you may find this hard to do. By tracking expenses daily, you do not run into the consistency problems that you would by tracking them weekly, such as I can’t remember a transaction or can’t find a receipt, etc.

Recording expenses will make you more connected to what and where you spend.

Tracking your spending will make you think more about each purchase and may help you to keep unnecessary spending under control.

Tracking your spending is a rewarding process.

It will paint a picture of your spending habits as they exist and not as you think they are. You can then use this information to create a spending plan, or, at the least, to serve as a picture of where your money actually goes.

How do you track spending? Share your thoughts and subscribe to the GoldenRules Blog here, and learn how to create a winning spending plan for you and your family.

7 Tips to Help You Get Out of Debt

There is good debt — such as borrowing money to buy a home, enhance your career skills, or pay for your children’s education – and there is bad debt, such as using credit cards and not paying balances in full every month.

Erasing the bad debt is important in helping you manage your finances and reach your financial goals. Below are seven tips to help you get out of debt.

Know what you owe. Knowing your monthly income and expenses is essential to improving your financial situation. This is because it is difficult to improve unless you know where you are. If you are serious about getting out of debt, take the time to list all your outstanding debts and include how much you owe, your monthly payment, and the interest rate. Once you do this you will know what you owe, and you can begin to tackle your debts.

Check your debt limit. If you are concerned that you may have more debt than you can handle, check to see if your debt is within safe limits. There are several ways to see if your monthly credit payments are taking too much of your income such as the debt-to-income ratio.

Pay off your smallest loan first. Financial experts say to pay off your smallest debt first. This will give you a sense of accomplishment and success as you tackle the next smallest debt. Additionally, you should use the money that you played off the first debt to now help you pay the second debt. You continue this snowball effect with all your debts

Increase your monthly net income. You can do this in two ways: earn more income or reduce your monthly expenses. Some suggest you do both. A part-time job or maybe you have a hobby that could be developed to produce additional income. As far as reducing income is concerned, you will be surprised how much you can reduce your expenses by living more frugally and using a spending plan. Taking your lunch to work and cutting back on cable and cell phone service could help you find an extra $500 a month to help reduce your debt.

Stop using credit cards and pay cash. Give them to a friend for safekeeping, freeze them in a block of ice, or put them in a safe deposit box, but do not use them. By paying cash for things instead of using credit, you could save thousands of dollars in interest and help you become debt-free.

Call the credit card companies and ask to renegotiate the interest rate, or inquire about special payment programs where fees such as interest and late payments may be suspended for a certain amount of time.

Start today. When it comes to getting out of debt, start sacrificing today. Lots of people talk about getting out of debt, but they fail to act. Do not follow their example and start today. Once you get started, you will begin to see how you are changing your family’s future.

These tips can help you get out of debt. Be consistent and persistent because you did not get into debt overnight. It may take some time to get out of debt. Contact me here if I can help you get out of debt.

Inflation and Your Spending Plan

Inflation worries are everywhere as you cannot listen to the news without hearing the word inflation. What does it all mean for your spending plan or budget?

Inflation fear is everywhere. Prices are rising higher and higher and, you cannot listen to the news without hearing the word inflation. Inflation and your spending plan, what does it all mean?

What Is Inflation?

Inflation is the decline of purchasing power of a currency over time. It’s reflected in the increase of an average price level of a basket of selected goods and services in an economy over time.

The rise in prices, expressed as a percentage, means that your dollar buys less than prior periods.

Inflation can raise the value of tangible assets like personal real property and erode the value of cash holdings.

What Causes Inflation?

An increase in the supply of money is the root of inflation, and this can play out through several different mechanisms in the economy. However, in all such cases, the money supply increases and your money loses its purchasing power.

Working With Inflation and Your Spending Plan

Below are some tips to help you stay with your spending plan during times when your money loses some of its purchasing power.

Create a Spending Plan

One of the best ways to beat inflation is to get on and stick to a spending plan to ensure you are paying attention to how much you are spending.

This will ensure that you are watching what you spend, and only spending what you plan to spend. Regardless of how inflation affects the cost of something, like gas.

Be sure to set spending plan limits for things inflation might affect, such as clothing, food, gas, and housing.

Allocate your money at the beginning of the month, and then stick to the spending limits you have set.

Be flexible by adjusting spending amounts between budget categories if need be but resist the urge to dip into emergency savings and other funds.

Your spending plan will help you determine your spending priorities. And your spending plan priorities will help you decide what items are the most important for you to spend money on and which you can pass on.

Look for Cheaper and Free Alternatives

You can beat inflation price increases by looking for alternative and less expensive store brands. Additionally, using coupons and shopping at bulk stores can help you save money on your spending plan.

Consider cutting out unnecessary expenses like the gym membership or your daily coffee if rising prices are eating into your spending plan.

Explore free and cheaper things to do in your area to help beat inflation. You could take advantage of free shows and events, and some museums that offer free admission.

Choosing to rent a movie and stay in and cook a meal instead of eating out is always cheaper.

Remember Your Priorities

And always keep your financial priorities and goals top of mind.

Do not overuse credit cards and pile up debt during inflationary times that you will have to take care of later.

Additionally, if you are saving or investing your money, continue to save and invest. Always pay yourself first.

What are some ways you beat inflation in your spending plan? Comment on this and let us know. Contact me here if I can help you with your spending plan.