These aren\u2019t easy numbers to accept, but they\u2019re real. And, of course, many people are just in tough situations so it\u2019s hard for them to get a grip on their finances.<\/p>\n
But for the others, it just comes down to bad financial planning. If you\u2019re broke by the end of the month, not reaching your finance goals or just unsure of where all your money went, we have two words for you: track expenses.<\/p>\n
If these numbers didn\u2019t convince you to start to track expenses, these 9 other reasons will.<\/p>\n
#1 Know where your money goes<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s a first advantage of deciding to track expenses: knowing exactly where all your hard-earned cash is ending up.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re not sure if you spent a normal or large amount on groceries, phone, coffee or anything else. And this is especially true since you\u2019re probably trying to save up for something big\u2014or just trying to cut back. But how can you cut back on expenses when you don\u2019t know what your expenses are?<\/p>\n
When you know where your money goes, it\u2019s the first step to really getting a hold of your expenses.<\/p>\n
#2 Prioritize your expenses<\/h2>\n
We\u2019ve mentioned discretionary expenses before<\/a> when talking about important invoicing terms, but just to reiterate: it\u2019s a \u201cwant\u201d and not a \u201cneed\u201d.<\/p>\n Needs are usually fixed expenses, such as rent, mortgage, etc., but they can also fluctuate and blend into \u201cwant.\u201d We all need<\/em> clothes and food, but do we really need that $800 Boss leather jacket or the 5-course meal at that fancy restaurant?<\/p>\n Probably not, and there\u2019s no justification for it. When you track expenses, you begin to see where your money goes (point no. 1) and then you\u2019ll see exactly what is more important: to save money, be financially independent, or look fantastic in that Boss jacket?<\/p>\n When you put it like that, the answer is easy\u2014I hope.<\/p>\n When you\u2019ve learnt where your expenses are going and what your priorities are, you\u2019ll naturally become more and more disciplined in your expenditures.<\/p>\n It\u2019ll be hard at the beginning, as all good things are, but soon you\u2019ll find yourself getting into a routine. Discipline is only necessary as a start\u2014after that it\u2019s routine.<\/p>\n Once you put your mind on your money and track expenses, you\u2019ll see how easy it is to keep yourself in line and your hands out of your pocket.\u00a0And then you\u2019ll get more organized in your habits.<\/p>\n But instead of writing everything down on napkins or keeping receipts in ye olde shoebox, you should probably go with online expense tracking.\u00a0That\u2019s what we do here at InvoiceBerry<\/a> as part of our online invoicing software, and it\u2019s helped thousands of people become more successful in their business.<\/p>\n This point isn\u2019t about being disciplined. It\u2019s just an eventual consequence of the decision to track expenses.<\/p>\n Now you\u2019re not just focused on being more careful with the money you have, but you\u2019re actually reading and learning more about making more <\/em>money.<\/p>\n This is important because, after you\u2019ve gotten to a good level of tracking expenses, cutting back and saving, what do you do? You need to start growing your money, and when you think about it, you\u2019ll be able to plan better.<\/p>\n When you\u2019ve been tracking expenses for a while, you\u2019ll begin to get in the flow and you\u2019ll know how much in general you\u2019re spending on certain areas.<\/p>\n But at this moment, before you track expenses, you don\u2019t know if you\u2019re spending more or less on food, clothes, or electronics compared to the last few months.\u00a0When you do track expenses, you\u2019ll see where those dangerous areas are.<\/p>\n For those Americans I mentioned above making at least $75,000 and living paycheck-to-paycheck, they can\u2019t control their problem spending areas. They spend too much on their lifestyle purchases. When you track expenses, you\u2019ll be able to see those problem areas before they become big problems.<\/p>\n A family that budgets together stays together? Sure, why not.<\/p>\n But money is one of the most difficult conversations to have in a relationship<\/a> or as a family. It isn\u2019t an easy topic to talk about, and so most people tend to avoid it.<\/p>\n However, when you decide to track expenses in order to make a budget, for example, you know you\u2019ll have to talk about money.<\/p>\n This makes it easier to do so. Although it\u2019s tough in the first few weeks, after real progress is made, you\u2019ll see how uniting of an experience it is.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t know where you\u2019re going, how will you know when you get there<\/a>?\u00a0Goals are crucial for progress, and when you track expenses it\u2019s much easier for you to set accurate goals.<\/p>\n Say your goal is to save enough money to go on vacation to Fiji. You know you\u2019ll need about $3000 for two of you, and with the hotel and everything that’s\u00a0easily $5000. Or you want to cut back expenses in general and have $5000 saved up by the end of the year.<\/p>\n Now, if you track expenses, you\u2019ll know exactly how close or far away from your goal you really are. And when you can accurately measure your progress, you can adjust, adapt and ensure you reach your goal.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve seen Lunch Money Lewis\u2019s video for “Bills”<\/a>\u00a0or heard the song, you know that scene where he\u2019s hoping he has enough money in his bank account to make the purchase?<\/p>\n It\u2019s a fun song, but for many people this is a reality. You don\u2019t know how much you have in your account because you don\u2019t track expenses. You don\u2019t know if you have enough to make this purchase, buy this food, pay that rent, buy those diapers, and you start worrying.<\/p>\n Or you just worry in general because your money is flying out of your pockets and you know just one accident or emergency will send you off the rails and put you in the poorhouse.<\/p>\n Or you can just skip that worrying by knowing exactly what your financial situation is.<\/p>\n In 2010, the FTC\u00a0discovered that a group of hackers had been using a multiyear, sophisticated scam<\/a> to steal millions of dollars from average Americans. What they did was make small charges ranging from 20 cents to $10 to people\u2019s credit card accounts.<\/p>\n Now, most probably wouldn\u2019t notice a $10 charge from Presi, WELLE, or any of the other fake company names they used. But if you track expenses, you would go over each charge and note what the expense was for, when, and why.<\/p>\n Unauthorized charges (or credit card fraud in general) happens a lot more than you think<\/a>. But with your eagle eyes developed by tracking your expenses, you\u2019ll catch it quickly and get your money back.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no really good reason not to do it. Being too busy or too tired are bad reasons.<\/p>\n Being confused by accounting procedures and Excel sheets is a normal response too. But if you\u2019re on one of InvoiceBerry\u2019s plans<\/a>, including Forever Free, you\u2019ll be able to easily track expenses<\/a>. No complications. No fuss. No excuses.<\/p>\n Are you tracking your expenses? What are your best budgeting and expense tracking tips? Let us know in the comments below!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s no reason to be ashamed of it: most people in the world don’t\u00a0track expenses. The fact that you don\u2019t comes as no surprise. Nor is it any surprise that at the end of the month you usually end up wondering where all your money went. If only you hadn\u2019t…what? Bought that thing you can\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[56,91],"tags":[103,22,230,301],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.invoiceberry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/9-reasons-track-expenses.png?fit=1380%2C580&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5m6q6-1DV","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.invoiceberry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.invoiceberry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.invoiceberry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.invoiceberry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.invoiceberry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6319"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.invoiceberry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6331,"href":"https:\/\/www.invoiceberry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6319\/revisions\/6331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.invoiceberry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.invoiceberry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.invoiceberry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.invoiceberry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}#3 Become more disciplined and organized<\/h2>\n
![\"With](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.invoiceberry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/invoiceberry-expense-screenshot-e1477058600293.png?resize=690%2C324&ssl=1\")
#4 Start planning your financial future<\/h2>\n
#5 Prevent potential crises<\/h2>\n
#6 Bring the family or couple together<\/h2>\n
#7 More accurately measure your progress<\/h2>\n
#8 Stop stressing about money<\/h2>\n
#9 Be aware of unauthorized charges<\/h2>\n
Track expenses and start succeeding<\/h2>\n