Visualize Where Your Money Goes — Personal Finances Spreadsheet

TL;TR weekly track your finances and automatically visualize where your money goes. It will help you make wiser decisions on a daily basis. Check the cover photos to preview the Basic and Full Personal Finances Spreadsheet.

While working as a freelance and doing my first steps as a tech entrepreneur I was deeply concerned about my finances. Inspired by Jack Butcher spreadsheet, I developed a system to track my expenses and visualize my economic habits and patterns. I wanted to rule my personal finances as if it was a "business" so I could stop freaking out about not having a regular income (or an income at all).  

No matter if you are a freelancer, entrepreneur, unemployed, employed or you're retired. No matter if you are wealthy or you just have few bucks on your account. By tracking your finances you'll understand how much your life costs and the value of your time.

It is said that you can improve something if you mesure it. Start with your finances!

The goal is to be mindful on your money to boost/minimize expenses in the areas that you enjoy more/less. Tracking your expenses will give you clues to make better decisions without self/social pressure.

The system that works for me: during the week I write down on my agenda my cash expenses. On Sunday evenings I take 15-30 min to transfer my cash/bank/credit card expenses on the spreadsheet. It's important to do it weekly for two reasons:
- less workload
- you give room for manoeuvre.

The results: I felt (more) free. I've learnt to be mindful about the relationship between (free) time vs time I was selling to others. Now I wisely choose which projects I want to participate/work/collaborate instead of saying yes to whatever comes because it's money.  Saved for mini retriments during my active work life. I started to make unpopular daily decisions, actually, numbers were making the decisions for me. I cut expenses that didn't make me happy and spend more on things I love or are important for me. Finally, I started saving money for my retirement, investing and even setting a small budget for monthly donations.

It all starts by tracking your expenses on a weekly basis. Afterwards, metrics and numbers will help you make better choices.

Use the Basic Spreadsheet to make the first steps or upgrade to the Full Spreadsheet to get metrics and performance indicators that will help you be more mindful on your time and money. 

>>Check the cover photos to preview the Basic and Full Personal Finances Spreadsheet<<

PS: Why on a spreadsheet? Privacy in an important issue for me, especially when it comes to sensible data. I prefer to own/decentralize my data whenever it's possible. Free apps sell your information to third parties, spreadsheets don't.

For any kind of additional information or questions, I'll be happy to help, send me an email at info@claragromaches.com, find me on SM by @claragromaches or check some of my creative work here.