How I started to track every penny that went in and out of my pocket and how I'm still doing it
In order to become financially free, you must track your expenses. This may sound tedious and time-consuming, but it's not. With the following steps, you'll reach FIRE much faster and with more fun:
Download a budget app (recommendations at the end of this article)
Track all your expenses
Do an «end of month review» - (ideally with our tool)
Repeat steps 2 and 3
Using the above method, you will set yourself up for success and maximise your chances of reaching FIRE. But before I dive into the details of our approach, let's first reflect on my own FIRE journey and how I got to start MyWallChart with a friend.
Many years ago, when I started to track every financial transaction in my daily life, I created a new note on my mobile phone: I promised myself that I would write down every penny I spend for the next 30 days.
The first days were a bit tedious, I must admit. After each purchase, I had to pull out my mobile phone and type in the exact amount I had just spent. Sometimes, it was a bit uncomfortable to record every cent in my mobile phone in front of my friends and family. And yes, sometimes, I just forgot to write it down.
But after just a few weeks, it had become so normal for me to record my expenses that I did it quite automatically. And yes, it really started to be fun.
After the first month of my FIRE journey, I downloaded a budget app and created several categories to order my expenses: rent, restaurant, groceries, hairdresser, gifts, drinks, clothes, mobility, education, hobbies... It was actually quite stunning how much money I spent each month on things I never intentionally thought about.
A few months later, I knew my finances and my monthly expenses extremely well. This knowledge gave me a great feeling of control and so I really enjoyed continuing tracking my financial transactions.
At the end of each month, I went through my budget app and transferred the monthly expenses (only the total) to an Excel spreadsheet. In the spreadsheet, I compared my monthly income with my monthly expenses. This way, I knew which months helped me reach my ultimate goal of financial independence, and which months were setbacks in my FIRE journey.
However, it always seemed to me that Excel wasn't the best solution to track my monthly expenditures and income streams. Hence, together with a friend from work, I started to build a tool to facilitate my FIRE journey.
With our MyWallChart tool, you can track your monthly expenses, incomes, assets and liabilities with ease and flexibility. While we built the tool primarily for us to facilitate our transaction tracking and FIRE journey, we eventually decided that we should share the tool with the global FIRE community – for free, of course.
Our MyWallChart tool is a work-in-progress and continually receives new features. For instance, a few weeks ago we launched new graphic functions to plot your data and summarise your financial situation in handy charts. Your feedback is always welcome, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please contact us.
As for budget apps, we have analysed a great number of offers. In the end, we came to the conclusion that the two best apps in the market to track your daily expenses are the following:
- Spendee
In summary, remember to use the FIRE approach below. In our experience, it is the best way forward to reach financial independence.
Download a budget app like Spendee or Daily Budget
Track all your daily financial transactions
Do an «end of month review» with our MyWallChart tool
Repeat steps 2 and 3
Good luck, and have fun!
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