The Money Mustache Community

General Discussion => Post-FIRE => Topic started by: blue_green_sparks on March 19, 2020, 05:39:44 PM

Title: Setting Goals/Tracking Actual Expenses
Post by: blue_green_sparks on March 19, 2020, 05:39:44 PM

I was really having trouble tracking expenses leading up to FI. Seemed almost like some money went missing sometimes. Finally I made sure every single penny came out of one single account. The account is funded a regular amount periodically. Looking at it graphically also helps me see trends. Goal is a percentage of our fixed income. We only made our goal because travel plans fell through. I guess I could dive deeper into categories but for now this seems OK and I actually look forward to see how we did on the last day of each month !

Title: Re: Setting Goals/Tracking Actual Expenses
Post by: myobjectivism on May 11, 2020, 08:55:51 AM

Good to see you are doing well by keeping average expenses within your goal.

Did you start diving into each category and analysed spend distribution? There are many budget/expense trackers online with varying degree of detail tracking.

I use Vertex 42 Money Manager excel template and customised it to track multiple years in a single sheet/spreadsheet.
It helps user to track to the lowest detail and ofcourse takes sometime to understand and get used to it.