My trick for keeping an eye on how I’m really doing is to use Quicken and fill it out at least a month ahead…entering all the expected bills due and expected paychecks. That way, even if the checking account has a fat balance, I’ll know that three weeks from now, there will only be $84. A written, solid reminder that to help me limit my spending to what I have.

You can add all of your accounts, including manual ones that don’t have websites. People will always have good and bad months, but you can’t argue with a 12 month history graph of your net worth. You can even choose which accounts to include in your net worth calculation. I exclude my mortgages and house since I don’t view that as liquid.

Lying to yourself is an important part of psychology… keep up the good blogging Trent.

I’m really enjoying your blog — it’s been serving as a cheerleading tool for me while I keep myself on the fiscal straight and narrow, and this is another great post. :-)

For the last half year, I have a spreadsheet where I enter my account balances at the end of each month. Everything from the checking account to the stock portfolio and retirement funds. With one exception (when I ended up having to take the dog to the vet which along with the prescribed medication took a pretty good bite out of my finances) so far by net worth has increased every month. I don’t really have a budget, but do set aside a fair chunk of money right away when I get my pay each month, which really helps: it puts if nothing else a psychological barrier between me and my savings, and I know that the better part of the money that is left in the account once those transfers have been made is money that I can use with a reasonably clean conscience. Of course, anything that still is left in the account at the end of the month goes into the savings account, too.

But he left out something that I find important: what the weight is made up of.

If you eat very little and/or skip out on exervice, you may lose 10 pounds, but half of that might be muscle. You are losing good weight.

Conversely, if you do any sort of muscle building activity (which anyone who wants to be “healthy and in shape” should be doing), you are likely to gain good weight. In someone that doesn’t have a lot of fat that they are dropping, they could actually see a weight gain after eating right and working out. But it’s not “bad”.

So, maybe a better “number” to use for this would be percentage body fat, or even just measurements at waist/arm/thigh/etc. These numbers are more stable, and are a better indicator of overall health than just your weight.

Even if I wanted to forget I couldn’t. I check my Yodlee account too regularly to not know my exact financial situation at any given moment!
-R

But Numbers do Lie, and Net Worth numbers lie most of all, especially if much of your net worth consists of the home you are buying.

A better example is a three-month budget; With rare exceptions (annual house insurance maybe?)all expenses will show up sometime during that three-month budget. It will show you where you really are, as opposed to where you’d like to think your are.

And even more, how much your weight changes on a weekly basis is not a good indicator of anything at all, because its completely natural for the human body to vary by a few pounds from week to week or even day to day.

Another danger- letting someone else lie to you! People may be trying to be nice and say you look like you are losing weight. If you aren’t, it’s easy to fall for it when you hear it from someone else (I know I have).

Love & Gratitude,
Tina
Think Simple. Be Decisive.
~ Productivity, Motivation & Happiness

“I can charge this, my balance is already $10,000, so what’s another $50?”

“I already spent $1000 on my new TV, the $400 sound system is a must.”

INCREDIBLE POST!!! THANKS!