Again, you can access the spreadsheet HERE »
To answer some of the questions and comments I expect will crop up ...
Doesn't this take a ton of work?
About three minutes every morning. I still have my LearnVest account, so I pull the numbers from there. If something looks odd, I'll pop into the online portals for my credit cards and make sure I can figure out each charge. I like to do it every day because if I waited a week, I'd have to spend much more time on it in one sitting.
I don't know if it will always suit my lifestyle, and tracking spending expense by expense drives some people up a wall, but for now, I like the close look at my finances.
Where are your retirement savings and investments?
I choose to leave them off, operating with the idea that I don't want to check them every day. That's a quick way to drive yourself nuts.
What do you mean, "savings interest?"
I have a high-yield savings account with online bank Ally that earns me 1% on my savings. (This is not a plug or sponsored post — after reading enough personal finance bloggers sing Ally's praises, I decided to give it a shot, and it's working out so far.) That sounds meager, but it's about 100 times what you earn in a standard savings account. I have two accounts, actually, to keep my savings goals separate. I've been meaning to set up a third.
Why aren't your credit cards on here?
Nearly every expenditure on this sheet is made via credit card. I don't include my credit card balance because I can't see the point in double-listing that info. I toyed around with the idea for a bit, but never could make it work in any meaningful way. I regularly use three credit cards (two airline rewards, one cash back, none of which are so fantastic I feel the need to recommend) and I don't carry any credit card debt.
And your checking account?
My bank sends me a daily update on the balance and any activity. That works just fine. I keep a bit of a cushion in it, just in case (there's always something) and experts say your checking account should hold at least a month of net pay. Don't keep too much in there, though — your checking account is the digital equivalent of keeping money under the mattress. It earns nothing whatsoever.
Where is your health insurance?
Health insurance, gym membership, and commuter pass are taken from my paycheck before I get it, so I don't mark them down. If you want to include them on your spreadsheet but exclude them from your balance, just pull that row out of your formula.
You've forgotten something.
That's OK. I'm fine with my spending tracker being off by $50 here or there. In fact, I don't mark down small increments of cash money that doesn't go into my accounts or isn't spent through my credit cards. I don't generally use much cash, but if I get $30 babysitting and spend it on tips for bartenders, vegetables from the farmer's market, and $1 bills for homeless people on the street in New York City, I don't mark it down. I'm not trying to drive myself completely nuts.
Your categories are different than my categories! How do I use this?
Easily! Go ahead and edit to your heart's content (once you make a copy!). Changing the names of the categories is all you need to do. If you want to delete one, right-click and delete, and if you want to add one, I recommend doing it within a category block rather than at the beginning or end of one, so it gets included in the summary fields (i.e. "Transportation").
This still doesn't work for me.
That's OK, too. Everyone's money is different, and that's why there are tons of tools out there to help you manage yours. Aside from the previously mentioned online services like LearnVest, Mint, Personal Capital, and You Need a Budget, you can download a spreadsheet template from a site like Tiller (I've never used it, but I read about it on the awesome Rockstar Finance). You could also build your own spreadsheet. Heck, you could be fine grabbing a paper and pen.
Whatever works for you, works for you. This is what works for me.
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