Saturday, September 23, 2006

Rich Step: Track what you spend

If I asked you how much money you spend and on what every month do you think you could tell me?  I bet not. 
 
Here's the challenge, for the next 4 weeks, keep track of everything you spend money on.  Every time you eat out, every time you plug a parking meter, everything you pay your rent.  I bet you will be very unhappily surprised to see where all the money goes.  Most people don't even realize how much they are spending.  But if you track your spending for a month (i'd say keep doing it if you can), you can see where you will save money.  Before you know how you can save money you won't be able to do it.
 
This goes hand in hand with my posts on goals.  If you want to accomplish something, you need to decide what to accomplish.  It's impossible to accomplish something you haven't decided on.  And vague goals don't help.  Decide that you want to save an extra $100 every month, and find ways to do it.  Goals have to be measurable to be effective as well.  If you can't tell when you've accomplished your goal, you never will.

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