Why Track Your Spending?

If you are on the fence about whether you should track your spending more closely or not, you must read this excerpt from the blog post "The Power of Tracking Your Spending" by Gerri Detweiler, on www.Credit.com.  I have read the book, "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg, and found it very helpful on how to use habit to accomplish things you never thought possible.

But what if tracking your spending did more than just shed light on where your money is going? In his book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg shares research by two Australian researchers, Ken Cheng and Megan Oaten, who designed a four-month experiment where participants were instructed to write down every purchase. It took some time to get into the habit of recording expenses, but once they did, there were some surprising results.

Not only did the participants’ financial lives improve, but they also smoked and drank less, ate less junk food and even found they were more productive at school and at home. Duhigg writes, “As people strengthened their willpower muscles in one part of their lives — in the gym, or a money management program — that strength spilled over into what they ate or how hard they worked. Once willpower became stronger, it touched everything.”

In addition to building a good habit that will help you in all areas of your life, xlyourfinances maximizes your efforts by feeding your information into an integrated budget and monthly and yearly summaries.  You can easily research past transactions with Excel's powerful "auto-filter" feature and you can use the cash forecast and personal financial statement to gain even greater control of your finances.  Let xlyourfinances help you develop the one habit that will impact your whole life for the better.

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