ElizabethT
Full time employment: Posting here.
For those who routinely track spending, do you have examples where the results changed your behavior? Mentioned elsewhere that I once tracked expenses for a year (slavishly - and to the penny if possible). Once I looked at the data, I couldn't think of a thing I wanted to change - even though there were a few minor surprises.
Just wondering.
In general, tracking - aside from enjoying the process, which takes about 10 mins a week, or one to two minutes a day - helps me to continue to evaluate output vs satisfaction. If I'm uncomfortable adding a spend entry, that's an indicator that the purchase did not deliver corresponding pleasure or satisfaction. I love to spend money - I dislike overspending, which is what I deem any output that fails to deliver equivalent satisfaction.
That may be to macro, so I can remember one specific input I made for an attendance for two people to an Angels baseball game. Adding in the cost of the tickets, the cost to park, and the price for food and beers, I was dismayed and grumpy when I made the input. Not because we couldn't afford it - we could - but because the cost for me/us fell far short of the subsequent enjoyment. This is not a statement about the cost of attending professional sporting events (I adored the Lakers throughout the Shaq and Kobe years, and no cost to attend then was to great!), but specifically that event at that time. So we didn't repeat it. We began attending collage games instead, where the costs were more in line with our enjoyment factor.
Conversely, we have generous budget amounts for Hobbies, Dining Out, Entertainment, and Travel. Our goal at the end of any year is to spend every dollar allocated, and tracking ensures that happens.
I think I primarily do it because it gives me ongoing confidence that we can spend and spend and spend, and as long as we're not over our allotted annual amount at end year, I can continue to have zero concerns about outliving our portfolio.
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