Sometimes we do not realize how little changes in life can be so very beneficial for us. There are times when things feel hopeless and then we make some amendments in our ways and they start falling in place. An example I want to give about my own self some years back. It will be around 20 years back, when I was always struggling with money, it felt like money was never enough and I had no savings, my credit card bills were always soaring and I was making late payments. I kept on taking loans to manage my expenses. To be honest I was very careless with my finances. If I had little money also in my hand I would spend it recklessly and then suffer for important needs.
At one point I did realize that this cannot go on forever and I need to make changes. I was not able to manage my expenses, so I started working on an excel sheet noting down my income and against that all the expenses I was making. In a couple of months, I did realize that I was spending a lot of money on things which were not important at all. In those days the cell phones were new and the charge was also high, I was spending lot over there. My phone bills were high. When I started making note of every single penny that I spent, I could understand where I could cut down and save and spend on essentials. In around a year's time, with this habit, I started managing my finances in a decent manner.
It was not a hell lot of a difference but then all those unnecessary expenses started reducing and my spendings were within my income. Then the next step was to focus on planning for future expenses and savings. Slowly gradually I could bring that also on track. All of this changed just with a very small habit of maintaining my income and expense on a sheet, which started giving me a good idea about how my finances were being managed by me. Then I could anticipate the big expenses of the year like birthdays and festival shopping, school fees, yearly family holiday and those kinds of things and I would plan accordingly. I started keeping budgets for everything and stayed in it as much as possible. If I overshot in a particular month then the following month I was extra careful to cover up.
Till date I follow this habit and trust me it works miraculously. I never feel I am running out of money, and by being in this habit now for so many years I can anticipate my yearly spending cycle well. There are some months when expenses go up and some when they are low. So, I save up maximum in those months and create a good buffer for the heavy months. Like the months from March to June are least expenses and good saving, whereas from Nov to Jan are heavy spending months. I keep saving a little for all the big expenses of life and that really helps me and does not put me in a helpless situation.
A small exercise of started to maintaining an excel sheet has made a huge difference for me in the way I manage my finance. My dad had this habit, he did not use excel because computers were not there in those days, he maintained a diary and noted down everything. He would ask me to do it also, but I did not follow it for a long time. And when I started I realized that it was such a important life skill and every child must be taught from a young age.
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