TheJacoBlog

"I'm reading a book called All Your Worth right now. They recommend having 50% of your income go for your "must-haves", 30% go for your "wants", and 20% go into "savings", I could tag all my transactions with one of those three tags, for example, in addition to the traditional category, "groceries" "utilities" and so on. From my initial glance, it looks like about 70% of our income goes for must-haves, and I put 20% of it into savings, so maybe some of my frustration comes from trying to squeeze all our wants -- the camping, the classes, the flower essences, the DSL line, the swimming, the bicycle lights, the Trader Joe's Peanut Butter Cups, the trips to the café with the kids, and so on -- out of 10% of our income. We need to look at strategies to get our must-haves -- mortgage, utilities, groceries, insurance -- down to 50%. Things would definitely be easier." from Paul Cooley's CarFreeFamily blog. This is a GREAT suggestion for those looking to simplify their expense tracking! I've been using Quicken for Windows ever since I can remember myself, and in the past 5 years I find it cumbersome and time consuming to keep that much detail on a regular basis. It was great when I first needed to learn how much does it cost to raise a family of four and how much does it cost to get a divorce and how much does it cost to be the father of twins after the divorce and feelings of 'guilt' and so on. But now? i think 'Must Haves' 'Wants' and 'Savings' is plenty to figure out where the money is dissapearing. Wait! who defines whether if Foie Gras is with 'must haves' or 'wants'?