Where did my money go?

Do you wonder where your pay check went? I have a strong perception before that money just passes thru the palm of my hands. Back then, I already have control of my finances. Yet I find myself clueless on where my money goes. That is until I forced myself to list everything that I spent for.

We often call that action as budgeting. For some reason, this word has an allergic effect to many. Let us see how Wikipedia define the term budget:

“Budget generally refers to a list of all planned expenses and revenues”

Since my spending habits is not dictated by any plans and are spontaneous in nature, then it is not budgeting but purely recording. Yet, it has served its purpose. I found the process useful and the list on my old reliable notebook just got longer

As simple as it is, the process is nevertheless time consuming. There is a conscious effort on my part to rewind what transpired the whole day. I made some memory checkpoints during the times that I reached for my wallet. The list practically has everything on it, from the banana que that I bought in the carinderia to the appliance I bought at the mall.

Years passed by and slowly the record eventually just got better. I categorized each of the line item to determine what type of expenses I am heavy on. I also inserted an income tab to lists all the money going in. This two combined, gave me my net worth which I use as gauge for my personal financial health.

I was so happy with this financial tool, that I even shared the template to my friends. That is when I found out that expense tracking is not for all. Some actually tried it, but sooner or later gave up. As Salve from Money Smarts says:

“ As you well know, I don’t like budgets. Just thinking about them makes me wince. I have tried, but really, I cannot pretend that I already have the hang of it. Just can’t.

I simply figure out how much I should save and invest, then spend the rest. That’s it. I enjoy the moolah. Let the money chips fall where they may. I can smile while forking over money at the restaurant because I know the purse strings keeping the savings fund are tightly shut “.

I learned that budgeting and expense recording has its own personality. Each person has his way of taking care of his money. It all goes down to the basic fact that (no matter how you do it) financial discipline to save is the ultimate goal.

Oh yes, discipline is always a tough task but once you have it then you’re made.