The Micro-Fix Series: Where’d My Pennies go?!?

Have you ever looked at your bank account and wondered where the money went?

I know I have. And while I am no financial planner, I have learned a few tricks that anyone can use to help you keep your money where YOU want it.

Here is the first thing to keep in mind: every penny of your money needs a job.

What does that mean?

All of your money should have an assigned job. That job might be for Savings, Bills, Fun Money, or any other specific “job” category you choose to give it.

The first thing you need to DO is track your money.

Yes I know this is annoying and can lead to some emotional upset. Personally, I hate looking at my tracker and having to acknowledge how much junk food I have bought, even if that is a part of my “fun money” in my budget. It still stings.

But, tracking is the first step. Do this as dispassionately as possible and as honestly as possible. It is best to do this for a full pay period. If you get paid weekly or even daily, shoot for a month of tracking to get the full picture of your spending habits. There are many tools to do this. I use an app on my phone that allows me to input my income and spendings and it does the math for me.

I hate math, so any time I can utilize a tool to do it for me you can bet I will do that.

The next thing you do is probably the most emotional part. You have to find where your money has gone (tracking) and re-assign the money to other jobs (budgeting). I really like hamburgers, but I do NOT need to BUY fast food multiple times a week.

This process is done in cycles. Over time you will naturally start to move your money in more advantageous ways.

Automate as many of your fixed and variable expenses as possible and record them at the start of each pay period that they come out of, or monthly, whatever timeframe makes the most sense for your situation. Automation and recording it immediately allows you to think less about it and have less stress from it.

In case you wonder what a fixed or variable expense is, think rent versus water bill. One is a fixed amount, the other can vary from month to month.

Do NOT completely ignore fun things. Like I said, I love hamburgers and pizza too. I can plan for a weekly “splurge” or a bigger monthly experience. And guess what? I can purchase hamburgers at the grocery store and cook them myself for a fraction of the cost of grabbing that fast food option.

It’s all about HOW you spend your money and putting your money to work from the moment before it hits your account.