Accurate as of

June 2024

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The whole point of managing your finances is so that you can enjoy as you prepare for your retirement days. Practice balanced delayed gratification.

Starting young has made this easier to form the habit of tracking as there weren’t many income or expenses to record. I’ve gone back and forth between spreadsheets and budgeting apps, ended up using both together which made me create my Annual Budgeting Spreadsheet on Google Sheets.

Why Both?

Spreadsheet

annual overview of how things are going
make financial decisions

e.g. how much more could I be allocating to invest’ or ‘do I have enough to take a holiday trip’

Budgeting App

record on the go
tracks the balances of all my accounts - banks, investments, credit cards

As I populate my Income and Expenses this chart will show real time figures that gives me an idea of

How much I have left to Budget at the start of the month
What is my Savings Rate for the month
How close am I to bursting my budget set for the month

As of March 2024, I’m managing all of my Finances on Notion

I absolutely 😍 LOVE this new set up. This is the dashboard that shows all the Accounts I have.

Monthly Dashboard

Shows me at a glance what my

Income
Expenses
Savings Rate

are thus far.

Expenses Dashboard

I use this to:

Monitor my expenses throughout the month (on budget, overbudget etc)
Budget for the New Month

Fixed Expenses

This doesn’t change for me. I’d revisit this every 6 months to ensure that all that is fixed is only what I really need. If you’re doing this for yourself at the start, trim down. Cut unnecessary fixed expenses.

e.g. subscriptions you don’t need or overpaying for your phone bill

Variable Expenses

Start of the month → Allocate a Budget to each cateogry.

As the month progress → Cell will change colour

Green - On Budget

Orange - Not Budgeted

Red - Overbudget 💥

This is crucial as it will affect how much I’ll be Saving or Investing.

🌟

I choose to spend on the things that I love — Bread 🍞 Desserts 🍮 Books 📚 and I forgo things like Taxi 🚖 Shopping 🛍️ Drinks 🍸

When I was receiving a salary, it usually comes in at the start of the month. It goes into my savings account of which I’d first

Pay off my Credit Card Bills
Allocate a sum to my Investment Account

These days I don’t allocate a sum to save anymore. I’m at the stage where I don’t spend excessively or have thoughts like “why is it that I’m only left with $X” in the middle of the month. Instead I monitor my savings rate closely. Most of my expenses each month is kept to what is necessary / comfortable for me.

In 2023 the goal was to save 60% but I’ve surpassed it with a 75% savings rate.

In 2024, the goal will be 70%.

In your case, if you aren’t used to budgeting and controlling your spendings each month, please, SAVE FIRST after receiving your salary at the start of the month. Transfer it out to a separate savings account.

Use a Spreadsheet, a Mobile App or this Notion Finance Dashboard to create a budget and record each transaction so you can track your progress mid-month. If you’re about to burst your budget, act accordingly! 🫡

At the start you might think that this is totally unnecessary but it will make a difference as you age and progress through life.