Where do you feel you could use more transparency with your finances?

[Anonymous]

I'm fairly new to this forum. I'm trying to get a better handle on my finances and am especially curious to see where all my money is going. I've got a few questions for this group:

(1) Where do you believe you could use more transparency with your finances? What tools do you use to get this transparency today to see where your money is going?

(2) Where do you think money is being wasted today, and how are you trying to reduce that waste?

Thanks!

[iced]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm fairly new to this forum. I'm trying to get a better handle on my finances and am especially curious to see where all my money is going. I've got a few questions for this group:

(1) Where do you believe you could use more transparency with your finances? What tools do you use to get this transparency today to see where your money is going?

(2) Where do you think money is being wasted today, and how are you trying to reduce that waste?

Thanks!

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1. I have complete transparency with my finances. If I *didn't* know where 100% of my money was going, I would be raising the red flag. As for tools, I guess I would say the respective websites/apps for companies/banks. I can see all of my CC charges via an app, mortgage payment via a website, car payment via another website, and student loan via yet another website. Those cover all of my expenditures each month.

2. The biggest wastes in my finances are interest and food. This month I paid $677.27 in interest for mortgage, car, and student loans. I spend around $1500/month on dining out. Those two areas consume just over 68% of my net income.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply! A couple follow up questions:

1. Do you find it tedious to go to every company / bank website to get this account information? Why don't you use other tools like Mint to make it easier?

2. It sounds like you view the interest and food expenses as "waste". Are you trying to eliminate them? How do you think about reducing it?

[iced]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for your reply! A couple follow up questions:

1. Do you find it tedious to go to every company / bank website to get this account information? Why don't you use other tools like Mint to make it easier?

2. It sounds like you view the interest and food expenses as "waste". Are you trying to eliminate them? How do you think about reducing it?

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1. No. All 3 loans are on auto-pay so I only need to log in to the sites when I want to check statement balances or gather payment history. All other expenses can be tracked within a single app (Chase) on my phone, so I have no need for a 3rd party tool. I also like knowing I'm getting my data from the source, so I don't have to question if I entered data incorrectly.

2. Of course interest is waste - that's money being paid to a lender because I was too insolvent/reluctant to pay cash for something. I am reducing my interest payments by around $5-10/month as I pay extra principal on student loan and mortgage to get them down as quickly as possible. I consider food expenses as waste because there's still room for reduction. Some people live on mac and cheese and ramen noodles, so I clearly have room to improve.

I would also consider my car to be a waste as I rarely drive it, but it's a more complicated thing to be rid of.

[Anonymous]

I don't have transparency issues.

I log every transaction in a checkbook register app. (I do this for every account I have including credit cards.) I only have about 4 sites I need to access to keep tabs on everything and I'm kind of OCD about checking accounts almost daily anyway.

I've cut every service I don't need, cut the bills on the ones I kept, reduced my travel significantly, and am taking public transportation more to save on parking/tolls.

My bar/restaurant spend is what gets me in trouble.