Author Topic: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses  (Read 3561 times)

brooklynmoney

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10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« on: November 25, 2018, 10:45:42 AM »
I know not everyone believes in tracking, but I do. I like to know where every penny I have spent has gone. At the end of they year next month I will have successfully tracked for 10 years (in reality I tracked in 2007 as well but was living in Chile so that data is in pesos and not as helpful). Overall, almost half of all $ spent in the last 10 years has been on housing -- buying my apt, paying rent or mortgage, home improvement, electricity, gas, home/rental insurance and home furnishings. Nothing else is anywhere close to that. Food is next at 13% and then travel, health and wellness and giving it away (gifts and charity) are each 6%. I feel I'd be better served selling my apartment and traveling the world as a nomad, while keeping some stuff at my mother's house, than maintaining my apartment. Although I guess that's the price to pay for living near a job that pays me $$$$.

Lordy

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #1 on: November 25, 2018, 02:29:28 PM »
Very cool!

I just reached the 8-year-anniversary of tracking only my net-worth.
Started on November 23rd 2010 with 122K and made it to 419K in those eight years.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #2 on: November 25, 2018, 03:21:33 PM »
That's awesome. Wish I got into it earlier. I have tracked every penny spent and earned since December 2014, which is still pretty cool!

MasterStache

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #3 on: November 25, 2018, 05:39:06 PM »
Wow that's a long time to track expenses. Good work. I'm only on year 2. It's somewhat pointless because our FIRE expenses will look very different ( much less hopefully).

SquashingDebt

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #4 on: November 25, 2018, 05:46:54 PM »
Your post motivated me to check, and I'm wrapping up my 8th year of tracking.  It's kind of fun to look back and see what I was spending money on in grad school.  You can see the month (June 2014) I found MMM, because that's the month I started ramping up my tracking and calculating my savings rate (12.5% that month, now hovering around 55-60%).  Thank goodness I found MMM before starting my real job!


AccidentialMustache

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #5 on: November 25, 2018, 06:03:17 PM »
12 years here -- first tracked is 2006, which is also the year after DW and I were married. It isn't 100% accurate, but its within +- a few percent.

OP: You're doing it right!

FirePita

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #6 on: November 25, 2018, 06:28:30 PM »
This thread is really inspiring. I started tracking 1.5 years ago using YNAB. it’s a great budgeting app that works great for me. What software do the long term trackers here use?

geekette

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #7 on: November 25, 2018, 06:50:15 PM »
Tracked every penny since ‘92. Yes, I’m old ;-).

Dibdab

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #8 on: November 25, 2018, 07:36:15 PM »
Was about to brag until geekette had to chime in.  Been tracking since 94 with Quicken.  Tracked since then, only out of necessity for taxes since have owned rental property since then. Finally gonna retire this coming August 2019 at age 57 with NW around 1.1M after I sell single family house to move into 2 flat rental that should free me to travel or whatever.  I have never earned much more than net 40K/yr and was usually net mid 30K for decades due to me being uneducated mostly. I have lived on mid 20K for years.  So even the I am older than most here probably I can definitely say FIRE is not just for the highly paid.  In fact the main reason I will have achieved this is not due to the MMM cult or anything but it is upbringing and fear of getting fucked over by the Man and plutocracy which seems to have happened as predicted actually.  Sorry for the negativity, and I know MMM likes to preach the power of being fit as also cost effectiveness, let me say as an avid runner and skier, when you get old things can break down, in my case adrenal glands and you will need 1M minimum at my age.  If not for the Obamacare I probably could not FIRE unless I moved out of the country where medical costs are constrained by good governance. Trumpcare short term policies are garbage - not "fabulous" at all

brooklynmoney

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #9 on: November 25, 2018, 07:57:37 PM »
Congrats to all my fellow trackers! I'm a big believer in this system. I use Mint.com religiously and then use that data to update a spreadsheet I create for each year.

Geekette and dibdab, you definitely have me beat and are an inspiration! Dibdab a big congrats on your retirement and wow your story is really impressive!

AccidentialMustache

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #10 on: November 25, 2018, 09:32:12 PM »
Originally? .xls or whatever the open office equivalent is. These days? Google docs. Create a form, drop the link to it on your phone home screen, and punch it in real time.

Zikoris

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #11 on: November 25, 2018, 11:31:57 PM »
We've got seven years of great Mint data at this point. I love poking around at it and seeing what stays the same, and what changes over time.

YourMother

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #12 on: November 27, 2018, 12:52:13 AM »
Great job! I've always loved tracking expenses. I started tracking my expenses on a piece of paper in July 1998, two months after I turned 18. In Jan 1999 when I bought my first computer I made a spreadsheet and moved everything over. I

soccerluvof4

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #13 on: November 27, 2018, 03:14:01 AM »
I've been tracking about 6 years with Mint and Would be on par with the OP's statement that by far even though we own are home its the number one expense. But I would think in most cases where you live whether you own or rent it would be your biggest cost. Again in most not all.

Zola.

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #14 on: November 27, 2018, 03:53:11 AM »
Awesome geekage

I am only 3 years into it myself, love the data and graphs I can produce from it haha. Although its historical data, it provides a bit of motivation to see how far you have come, how loose you used to be, and how far you still have to go.

I updated my spending every other morning in Google sheets.

MasterStache

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #15 on: November 27, 2018, 10:55:01 AM »
This thread is really inspiring. I started tracking 1.5 years ago using YNAB. it’s a great budgeting app that works great for me. What software do the long term trackers here use?

I use good ole Excel since I am a spreadsheet junkie.

beee

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #16 on: November 27, 2018, 11:54:30 AM »
I think tracking incomes and expenses manually is a really useful habit.

I've been tracking expenses since 2011, so 7.5 years now.
NW is up more than 25X since then, all time savings rate is 57%.

Our top 5 expense categories of all time:
food — also includes eating out
housing — I don't include downpayment as well as mortgage prepayments as expenses though, normal monthly mortgage payments were included until we paid it off
hm — my side project, I do include business expenses into my personal expenses
car — excludes the purchase price (don't want to skew my monthly expenses with this one-time big purchase)

SquashingDebt

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #17 on: November 29, 2018, 05:06:18 AM »
I also use Excel.  A super basic spreadsheet at first, that I've gradually tweaked over the years.  I didn't track my net worth until I graduated from grad school and got a job, so that's only been about 3.5 years.  (The reason I started tracking expenses at all is because I realized my ~$5k in credit card debt was slowly growing each month and a lightbulb went off that I had to stop spending more than I was earning.  I've come a long way since then!)

OurTown

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #18 on: November 29, 2018, 09:52:13 AM »
I started tracking recently.  I did a retroactive 6 month analysis and realized that even with our good financial habits, there was a lot of wasteful spending slipping through our fingers.  I'm using the free version of everydollar.com.  It's a Dave Ramsey product.  I don't know if I will track forever but for the moment it is pretty useful.

lexde

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #19 on: November 29, 2018, 10:06:31 AM »
Was about to brag until geekette had to chime in.  Been tracking since 94 with Quicken.  Tracked since then, only out of necessity for taxes since have owned rental property since then. Finally gonna retire this coming August 2019 at age 57 with NW around 1.1M after I sell single family house to move into 2 flat rental that should free me to travel or whatever.  I have never earned much more than net 40K/yr and was usually net mid 30K for decades due to me being uneducated mostly. I have lived on mid 20K for years.  So even the I am older than most here probably I can definitely say FIRE is not just for the highly paid.  In fact the main reason I will have achieved this is not due to the MMM cult or anything but it is upbringing and fear of getting fucked over by the Man and plutocracy which seems to have happened as predicted actually.  Sorry for the negativity, and I know MMM likes to preach the power of being fit as also cost effectiveness, let me say as an avid runner and skier, when you get old things can break down, in my case adrenal glands and you will need 1M minimum at my age.  If not for the Obamacare I probably could not FIRE unless I moved out of the country where medical costs are constrained by good governance. Trumpcare short term policies are garbage - not "fabulous" at all
I’d love to read a write up of your life story/FIRE journey if you ever feel compelled to write it. This really is the shining example of “slow and steady wins the race” and it’s so good to read about non-lawyers/doctors/techies.

phildonnia

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Re: 10 Years of Tracking Expenses
« Reply #20 on: December 07, 2018, 02:50:28 PM »
I've been tracking my expenses in Quicken since 1998.  Oh, and I still have Quicken 98.