Finance Tracking

Now that we’ve made some changes to our spending plans, and focused our finances a bit, we need to create a system that automatically lets us know how well we are doing with our goals.

As simple as this spreadsheet is, I’ve become a fan of Mint because it enters the information for me. Even though data entry doesn’t take me very long, it’s much easier to have a computer do it automatically.

It’s easy!

Fortunately, using Mint is quite simple. Part of being a Money Master is letting the finances run in the background so that we don’t have to focus on them. The goal is for our money to help us live the life we want to, instead of being a slave to the money.

Mint has created a series of simple instructions that outline how to complete each step. Since we have created our spending plans, now we can just follow mint’s advice to help us make sure we’re on track with our spending.

Set up

Yes, it will take some time at first to get everything put in place. However, this will be time well spent. Once you get everything set up you will be able to simply log in, check the details, and then use the tools that Mint provides to see how you are doing.

Overview

Being able to see a snapshot (no matter if you prefer bar graphs or pie charts) of your personal finances is an amazing feeling. You will be able to see the progress you are making towards paying off your debt, how your savings are growing, and how much of your fun money is left to spend. After all, that’s what it’s really all about, right?

2 thoughts on “Finance Tracking

  1. Rebecca Burgener says:

    Visual tools are extremely important. It’s so easy to feel as though we are spinning our wheels with the pay day/pay bills cycle (and savings is absolutely a bill). It’s nice to see the progress with savings and debt reduction each pay day.

    • Matthew says:

      I agree completely. There’s just something about seeing that colorful pie chart that makes me understand where my money is going, even when I already know all the numbers.

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