What One Year Of Consistently Tracking My Finances Has Taught Me

I started writing this blog because I was cruising through life, and randomly talking to Sarah about our upcoming quarter two reviews, when I took time to review what Sarah was to keep me accountable for, and it hit me that I had done almost nothing of the items on my list.

Anyone who has met Sarah knows that, although being a sweetheart, when she means business, she means business. So out of the fear for my accountability partner roasting me which happened to be around the same time I was doing my June finance tracking- I realized that I had hit the jack pot- okay, let’s say this when we get to the end because even as I type this I wonder what financial wisdom I think I have gotten to be able to write about financial tracking.

Fortunately, I didn’t make any promises in the title. This is just a random rumble of a girl who tracks her spending on her simple Excel and has an accountability partner who will roast her for eternity if she doesn’t live up to her full potential.

So, backstory( yes, this too has a backstory), I started tracking my finances back in university. By then, my only allowance was the sustenance money I got from my parents, but even then, with my five thousand Kenya shillings, I sat down with my tracker every week to account for my usage. That’s where saving first, then spending, started. And it wasn’t easy, especially because I would put aside two thousand and have to live off three thousand. Where there’s a will there’s a way though; a way to my mother’s kitchen where I used to do my ‘grocery shopping’, and after that when I still needed a little extra for hiking or dance classes, I called my dad to catch him up on my life and all I was doing which to my surprise, always ended with him sending me a little extra money :). What you may choose to label as manipulation, I see as chronicles of being a lastborn.

I have picked up and lost the habit a little over the years, every few months or so, but this time, I can say that I have consistently tracked my finances for the past year, and here are a few of my lessons, struggles, epiphanies, and thoughts:

• It’s really not overhyped. Track your damn finances! It will show you some of the loopholes you have, and where you may be overspending. Sometimes we continue tapping our cards, and as long as there’s still some money in the account, you think you have your finances under control, but let’s be honest, do you?

• Those Amazon purchases add up. That’s the realization, the lesson, and the epiphany all in one. Tracking my finances showed me the gaping hole I had with my spending on Amazon, which I am now getting a hang of- baby steps, please.

• Some days, you will dread tracking your finances. You know those months or weeks when you tap your card like you’re getting paid for it and not paying for it, literally. Some days, I don’t want to have to go through my bank statements because I question if my evil twin took over for a moment there. My advice: put on your big girl pants and do it. Most of the time, it’s not as bad as I think, and when it is as bad, I find ways of ‘punishing’ myself. Yep, just as fast as we are to reward ourselves for achieving our goals and for good behavior, let’s hold ourselves accountable and have repercussions for our not-so-good ones.

  Example: To point number two on my Amazon purchases, there was a huge book sale for Eid that made me go crazy and overspend on Amazon, so the repercussion was canceling my Netflix subscription for three months which was honestly not as hard as I thought and fed into the purchase because I get to use that time to read the books I bought. Before you applaud me for my maturity, I sometimes still torrent movies - what? I’m a superhuman, not a saint- big difference!

• Tracking my finances made me diversify my investment streams. As you continue to track your finances, you will start to notice just how much money you have lying in the bank(that’s if you track and budget, Brian. The money won’t fall from the sky). That made me get interested in how I can make my money work for me, so I found blogs, videos, and talked to my mentor and colleagues on how they are investing their money. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Of course, not every investment advice will be relevant for you, take it all with a pinch of salt. Self-awareness will go a long way with this.

  

• Read the psychology of money. It has nothing to do with financial tracking, but if I don’t pass on this beautiful read now, when will I? I loved this book because finances and investing are not a one-size-fits-all, and the author makes it clear from the word go. Instead, this book challenges you to look within; what is your relationship with money? What purpose does it serve in your life? How best can you handle it to ensure it serves that purpose? Honestly! Chef’s kiss- go and get it today!

• Final note, journaling helps even with financial tracking- let me explain before you throw a fit. This one time, I had an expense and for the life of me could not figure out what purchase I had made. I checked my journal for the date and time stamp(yes, I journal so much I have both date and time stamps) and it showed that I was working from a coffee shop that day and that purchase had been for the coffee I had ordered while there. Your call now dear reader, spiral or leather-bound journal, what will it be? 😂

Short entry; I know. But who said all blogs have to be long? As I said, it was a random rumble. On that note, that’s my cue to go and have my quarter two reviews with Sarah.

How is your year going so far? I hope you have time to sit down and do a little stock check before you go into the next half, whether by yourself or with someone.

Till next time!