One of the most important monthly personal finance task to start you on your wealth building journey is understanding what your money is doing. If you are constantly wondering, “where did my money go?”, it’s time to start tracking your finances.

A great free online tool to get you started is Personal Capital.

Setting and accomplishing goals will be part of my life as far as I am breathing. For most of us, understanding personal spending habits and practicing self discipline is probably one of the most fundamental yet most important traits we struggle with. As imperfect and habitual human beings, our effort to improve ourselves will likely be a lifelong task.

You can learn a lot from checking your expenses once a month. When you track all data and observe them for years, you really learn a lot about yourself. I still remember being shocked month after month on my social spending expenses. Took me months of being shocked before I brought the spending habit under control. Don’t get me wrong, social expenses are important but I often spent ridiculous amounts. Tracking your expenses will help spot troublesome spending habits. It’s much easier to correct bad habits when you have a clear view of them. I believe it’s an important task that we must apply in our lives for building wealth.

Having reached FIRE (Financial Independence Retired Early) at the age of 35, observing expenses after FIRE has been fascinating. I still wonder if my expenses and finances will play out the way I planned. I tend to be very conservative in my calculations with everything, but It’s in my nature to worry about all risks.

Luckily everything has been going smooth with nothing wildly unexpected.

Life is good so without further ado, here are my expenses for the month of May!

 

Expenses

Insurance: $1,193

Groceries: $668

Travel: $426

Utilities: $294

Mobile Phone: $131

Restaurant: $102

Shopping: $91

Auto – Maintenance: $80

Auto – Gas: $58

Landscaping: $40

Subscriptions: $20

Service Fees: $10

Total: $3,113 (-35.9% from prior month)

 

Conclusion

I’m happy with my expenses when there are no unexpected large expenses. All other expenses are all anticipated well ahead using a custom spreadsheet which helps me forecast all major expenses in the year.

The days when my monthly expenses were as high as 20K are no more. I live a much more humble life. Learned to appreciate the simple things in life.

The travel expenses are for an upcoming trip to Yellowstone in mid June. I’m a nature lover. I’m not the greatest travel hacker but have learned a little over the years. Not much of a traveler to be honest with you. Traveling got tiring for me quickly in my earlier years. My passion is more lined with the wonderful food this world has to offer. I guess I could travel for the sake of food…

This year I am really trying harder to cut down on my shopping. I’m trying to sell EVERYTHING I no longer need in my life. Reducing clutter in my life continues to bring me satisfaction and boosts my happiness overall. More of my shopping expenses are now becoming spending related to gifts.

I feel grateful for what I have today and no amount of materialistic things equals more value to me than knowledge.

Another month in the books! Thanks for reading!