Comments on: Logging

By: 3 Ways to Monitor Your Spending

3 Ways to Monitor Your Spending — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:10:43 +0000

[...] wrote last week about the value, as I see it, of keeping track of things in order to make changes in your life.� While a common refrain in personal finance is to spend less than you earn, its obviously quite [...]

By: Four Pillars

Four Pillars — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:22:54 +0000

I agree with Squawk – I initially thought it was a logging (as in trees) post as well…

By: Squawkfox

Squawkfox — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:19:39 +0000

@Cheap I use the hair to track where she’s been sleeping. I use the dustbuster to do the count.

I too am a reformed book buying addict. I love books. Books are tangible. The are real. I have found wallet relief by rediscovering the library. My small town library is actually quite good…but nothing like the shelves in bigger cities.

By: Mr. Cheap

Mr. Cheap — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:11:10 +0000

Mrs. Pillars: Mike’s corrupting you! I fluctuate between accounting for every penny and try to just keep an eye on the “broad bush-strokes”.

Like yourself, I find accounting for every penny lets me see how individual choices are affecting my finances (but it can be a bit of a pain).

Usually I’ll track every penny for a couple of months, then just follow the general trends until I start worrying something is costing me too much day-to-day.

I totally understand the book buying addiction (and am a reformed addict), but its just so expensive and space-consuming!

By: Mrs Pillars

Mrs Pillars — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:40:18 +0000

I was obsessed about accounting for every penny until Mike came along and disrupted my quiet life. Now I am happy to account for most expenses and leave a larger “misc” category for incidentals.

Keeping close track of my spending made me aware of how much impact it had to have a book buying addiction and having lunch with colleagues, etc. It gave me the opportunity to assess my priorities. You’ll be happy to hear that the book buying addiction is a thing of the past.

By: Mr. Cheap

Mr. Cheap — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 05:42:22 +0000

Squawkfox: Hmm… I promised to make suggestions for measuring things. Maybe weight for dog hair? Why are you tracking it (are you doing some sort of craft project with it or do you just want to know how angry you should be at the dog causing you additional house-keeping)?

By: Squawkfox

Squawkfox — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 03:00:08 +0000

I live in BC, in the middle of a forest. When I read “Logging” I thunk you was blogging about deforestation. I digress.

I track everything. I am obsessive about checklists, metrics, and dog hair. Dog hair being the hardest to track, by far.

By: Four Pillars

Four Pillars — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:15:02 +0000

I’m a spreadsheet junkie for sure! I have tons of financial info/blog stuff on spreadsheets. I do all my planning on spreadsheets.

Nobleea – I don’t keep track of any ratios. Ratios imply rule-of-thumbs which I tend not to worry about given the amount of analysis I do on my personal financial situation. My goal with respect to debt is to get it to zero – my goal with retirement assets is to get it high enough so I can live off it.

By: nobleea

nobleea — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:54:18 +0000

I too enter all the financial information in to the requisite spreadsheets monthly. And yes, there is some erratic movements in certain accounts.

Do you guys use any ratios/metrics to track the net worth/finances other than pure numbers? I’ve read that debt/asset ratio is a good number (strive for under 0.5?), the % of your net worth that is in your personal residence (less is better), your debt to equity ratio (or debt to net worth, again less is better).

By: Mr. Cheap

Mr. Cheap — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:37:03 +0000

guinness: I suspect our site is turning bad. It says it killed your post just to watch it die. Yikes!

Its definitely easier when you’re just feeding one person to make major dietary changes.

I’m a spreadsheet junkie too!