http://aceofwealth.com/2010/02/you-need-a-budget-3/

Beyond having the tools, it can be overwhelming once we get the data to fully digest it. Often times it’s a rude awakening, a window into habits we didn’t even know existed! To me, the most important thing is to take things slowly. The cliche term “Rome wasn’t built in a day” holds true here. Your financial habits find their way into every facet of your life. Rather than focusing on changing everything, focus. Better yet, focus on the biggest problem. If you found that you spend 30% of your budget on shopping, start with that.

Rather, I just concentrated on identifying and eliminating all areas of unnecessary spending.

That habit has stayed with me till this day and is the true reason behind my escape from my debt problems.

I had been thinking it would be useful to have a service to track my diet, exercise, and other factors to find their effects on my mood and energy level.

This set me off on a search. I found a pretty good free tracking website – http://www.medhelp.org – and got started today. They have trackers for just about anything you can think of in terms of health. Hopefully soon a service out there will offer apps for all kinds of smartphones to make it easier to update on the go, so it’s easier to stay on top of.

They’re both useful for different stages of life.

Does everyone know about http://rescueetime.com? When I was starting a big new project in February, I used it to track the time I actually spent working and, sure enough, I was embarrassingly lazy.

Using their program for about a month made me really think twice when I got frustrated or distracted and started doing something else.

Totally changed my habits.

Sierra – The more I have been thinking, the more I realize that the one thing missing in my progression forward in a couple areas is keeping better records. Yes, the judgment part may be hard to get past, but it may be just what I need.

Thanks for the motivation!

I would be lost without my various lists, journals, indices, and budgets!

I write often on my site that to really understanding your organization, we need to track and analyze key information. The secret is always to keep the list of things tracked, short and simple. We can transform our own lives, the same way we can transform a business (it works for both – because they are both people centered).

Tracking personal stats had worked great for me and for many people I’ve recommended it to. Often, it is best to figure out what your goal is, then figure out a way to measure it.

Excellent reminder. Thanks.

Bruce Benson
http://PMToolsThatWork.com (Project management hints, tips and tricks for when things just are not going well.)

Thanks!

Last night I loaded all of my spending into Mint.com and was first surprised at what thorough tool it was, and secondly utterly shocked at how much I was spending on Food and Dining. It was really depressing after trying so hard to save since the new year and I was feeling kind of down this morning. But then I opened my inbox to this post and it really hit home.

It really is just useful information. Now I’ve found a tool to help me stay in budget and have the power of information. I was spending a lot more than I thought, but now thanks to discovering this new tool, armed with the insight of this post, I can start to take more steps in the right direction.

Thanks!

You are quite correct! Many people do not easily acquire self-awareness by simply deciding they will become aware. The data gathering process, for many, is the “awakening” that creates the awareness.

As J.D. mentions in his book, tracking expenses need not be a permanent practice. Good habits form over time and the data gathering can eventually end or be minimized…

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” – Henry David Thoreau

With regards to Kent @ The Financial Philosopher comment I think that simply the knowledge that when you get home you’ll need to record the purchase and be accountable for it that it forces you to consider the ‘now’ aspect.

We are now 5 months in and without even setting budget rules based on our data yet we’ve already seen improvements in our spending habits. For us it has been about moderation. We still want to be able to enjoy the little expenses that we like – a coffee at a cafe, a dinner out with friends but we don’t want to go overboard. Living as a couple being able to look at a spreadsheet a few times each week to see how much we’ve spent combined on things can be a good reality check. Better than getting to the end of the month and wondering why we have half the savings we expected and then realizing that we were both banking on the other half having spent less.

Lieber’s focus seemed to be more on whether people track their net worth to compare their standing to others, whether it was a competition.

For me, tracking out net worth and tracking our personal finances via Quicken (something we also do), along with tracking our savings goals via an Excel chart focuses my attention on whether we are managing our personal finances within the parameters we have set up for ourselves.

I’m not obsessed with my net worth number as much as I’m obsessed with staying on track with our plan.

I second the recommendation of DailyBurn.com for tracking what you eat. If you’d like to lose weight but you’re not ready to commit to anything else yet, just start by using this site to track what you’re eating. You don’t have to change anything, just keep an honest record of your daily intake. Once you have some data, you won’t have to guess how many calories you need to cut out or burn in a day to see results. You’ll set yourself up to succeed on the first try, and once you get some results you’ll have the momentum you need to keep going.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127081326

If you simply make conscious choices now, there is less of a need for data collection later, which can also be a time consumer.

Self-awareness is about “being here now,” not being here later… after you’ve made the purchases.

“Be master of mind, not mastered by mind.” ~ Zen Proverb

I can definitely see a correlation this affect has on personal finance too.

Get it out while it is fresh. While there is still meaning behind it. Then you can look at it with a new perspective. You are outside looking in.

My husband is a huge charts/graphs kind of guy (engineer, figures). It used to drive me crazy and while we joke about it, the reality is the information and data that he collects (specifically with our finances) is no less than astounding. I tend to look at things one way and he can put a whole new perspective on it.

We spent the past 2 years digging out of the debt-hole and watching him track it made almost a game out of it and the whole process a little less painful. Now he sits and tracks our investments and i love to watch those numbers going up.

I myself have a simple budget sheet. No computer, charts, graphs. Just a simple piece of paper in a notebook. But i write in it diligently, and i can tell you on any given day of the month how much money i have spent for the month or to date for the year. It helps me see where the money is going and how far it is stretching. It’s an invaluable tool and one i don’t plan on giving up any time soon.

Tracking does have its benefits, though I think that a person can track way too much stuff and pick apart their lives in ways that are not beneficial to them. Everything a person tracks requires time and energy and some things are just not worth the effort. If you want to change habits and need to explore the patterns, that seems reasonable but to track every aspect of your daily life, where is the enjoyment in that?

Tracking has helped me (when I stuck with it) to change habits and become aware of my errors in spending, so it isn’t all bad. Like anything, there should be a reason and purpose for what it is you are doing.