-Tracking Personal Finances Sacha Chua

{why } Чимб know where your money goes avoid problems and minimize risks Track progress Basics Opening Balances alternatives automatically Save 10%+, and learn to live i within that budget Use an automatic finance tool like Mint.com assets (Bank accounts, pay stocks, etc.) Expenses payment charge [Liabilities (Credit card) earn Income debt Define lots of subaccounts too. $20 Nov 3 Why I track using Ledger (ledger-cli.org) E text-easy to work with Virtual transactions Let me set up "envelopes," which are more flexible than budgets I have some code that credit Process statements I track cash expenses by moving assets: bank account → on withdrawal. When I want to track 1 a cash expense, I move it from Cash to the other account (ex: Transportation) Expenses Cash This gets taken out of my "play money" envelope, So I have some incentive to track it properly. I tend to update my finances monthly, after I receive my credit card bill. I track credit card charges with a Subaccount for each month, so it's easy to match it with payments. up Emacs (text editor) + Ledger (reports) Nov 21, 2013-

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WhatHow are my,graph)average monthly.expenses?Am I aheador behind inour splitexpenses?How long will myexperiment fundLast?How much roomdo I haveto play?☑ Envelopes: you set asideOXspecific amounts fordifferent categories,When there's no moremoney in the envelope,stop spending. You canmove money from less-important envelopes tomore important envelopes,but not the other wayaround.M