Dominguez and Robin (the authors of Your Money or Your Life – see my previous post) make a good point in regard to sharpening our focus around money, that is, in regard to increasing our money consciousness. They talk about having spiritual discipline.
“Religions, ancient and modern, and the personal growth workshops of the human potential movement all have techniques for training the mind to be here now, “in the moment.” For example, “counting breaths, keeping the attention on each incoming and outgoing breath; repeating a phrase over and over in order to focus the wandering mind…
“To this list we add another discipline designed to sharpen awareness – one that is… more easily accepted by our grounded, materialistic Western mentality than some of the more “esoteric” practices.
Instead of watching your breath, you watch your money… Keep track of every cent that comes into or goes out of your life.
I agree with these authors. This seems like an exercise that is equally difficult to do but could have just as much ability to “train” you. It’s much more rigorous than simply keeping a general budget. And if you already balance your books, do you really do it down to the last penny? If so, that’s great. It’s something I will have to work on. But I like thinking about it in this context. It makes much more sense and I can see the rewards more clearly than just doing a balancing act for balancing’s sake. This would make you spiritually accountable in some sense – which is also financially accountable, since money = your life energy.
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I did this for about 3 months last summer, and I think it really left a lasting impact. It’s really easy to look right over the little, unnecessary expenses that can ruin a budget, but doing this forces you to acknowledge them.
Good job. I’ve done it myself at one point. It is hard to discipline yourself just to remember to write each little expenditure down. But it was an enlightening process in the end when I was able to look at all the totals. I’ll be doing it again soon, this time with this book in mind.
One of the reasons for financial wealth building success that I have had was to do a budget and then I had a spreadsheet where I entered the actual expenses versus the budgeted amounts. I did this for about ten years and it helped me to be a very disciplined person handling money that I do not need to do a budget anymore.
Ten years, that’s great. I really need to practise better budgeting; it’s never “worked” for me; I make lists on the fly or do it in my head. It might be easier once one has a regular, dependable income.
We should never underestimate the value of simply ‘being aware’ of what is coming in and going out. A lot of people just bury their heads in the sand, not even opening the post…etc – that can only lead to further problems!
In addition to the book you mention, I find these resources helpful when it comes to dealing with personal finance:
adviceguide.org.uk
thinkmoney.com
moneysavingexpert.com