Stop making these 7 money mistakes!

The Surprising Answer to ‘Where the F*ck Does All My Money Go?’

  May 8, 2017  |    #Tools

Where does all my money go?

Where does all my money go? Sex, drugs and rock-n-roll, baby! You may not think you have a rockstar life, but this one-of-a-kind Spending Analysis will prove otherwise. We dare you to find out.

Are you always running out of money?

If, like us, you’re to your money like Joan Crawford was to hangers, it’s time to check your money situation. When we analyze our spending for the previous 12 months, it becomes “Debt Free or Bust” for most of us.

Like we did, you’re wondering why you make good money, but your life feels blah. You make about the same as your friends, but their lives are more *NSYNC, and yours is more 98 Degrees. You can’t figure out why you have more month left over at the end of your money. You feel like you’re doing something wrong, but you don’t know what.

Eyes wide shut

If you have a good job with good benefits and you’re making real money (on paper), but you feel like you’re in a rut and can’t account for where your money goes, you’re spending unconsciously.

It’s like when you have a new tub of American Crew hair product. You apply it to your hair liberally, at first. When you’re almost out, you make it last as long as possible because you hate going to Target to buy more – because you never go to Target to get only one thing.

When we analyzed our spending, we learned how much money we were spending on alcohol and our social lives. We went to regular happy hours that lasted longer than an hour. We bought clothes we didn’t need (and couldn’t afford). We were dining out regularly despite having an overflowing refrigerator and spending $400 a week on groceries!

WTH!?

The hell is you don’t know where your money’s going. You make good money, but you’re not good with it. This is the opposite of being money conscious. Consequently, you watch your checking account hit near-$0 every month, and you wonder why your life feels like the theme song to Friends and not Golden Girls.

Knowing Joe is only half the battle

You can know Joe. But, if you don’t do anything with him, what’s the point?

Get access to all your account statements, credit cards, investing, checking, debit . . . everything. Put all your expenses for the last six to 12 months –  every single transaction – on the worksheet and find out where all your money goes.

We want to give you a heads up. This exercise isn’t hard but it does take time. We did this over the course of a weekend when it was rainy and cold outside. We committed to doing it a few hours that Saturday and a few hours that Sunday. If done properly, this exercise is as eye-opening as it is time-consuming. You’ll learn a lot and, in most cases, find a lot of opportunities to become debt free.

Where DOES all my money go?

Knowing your spending habits will open your eyes wide. If you’re like us, and you are, you’ll see patterns in your spending. Is all your money going to a few wasteful categories? Does spending in those categories give you short-term pleasure rather than rewarding purpose-driven spending?

Doing this exercise will help you figure out the changes in your spending that will have the most impact, i.e., savings to go towards your debt or that car or condo. It may mean you don’t have to overhaul your entire budget. You may just need to cut back in a few areas like us. We mainly had to cut back on wine, dining out and expensive clothes.

The rockstar you are

Knowing where your money goes won’t take away your rockstar card. That’s the intention of purpose-driven spending – spend intentionally on what adds value to your life, and you’ll get more value in life.

You can only do this when you know where your money goes.

What should you do?

Whether you’re at the 50% – “just stick the tip in” – phase or 100% committed to changing your life, download our spending analysis and see if you, too, don’t go all in (or down) on pulling your financial act (not legs) together.

By “complete,” we mean itemize six to 12 months of ALL your spending. David does this regularly. The first time he did it, it took several hours. Now it takes but minutes (maybe longer).

We have no doubt that doing this exercise will fix your sitch. So, just do it!

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