I am terrible with money.  Honestly sometimes it feels like the stuff just evaporates from my wallet.  To quote my father, about cars but the principle applies, “if they weren’t so useful I’d hate them.”  So I regularly dive into the financial blogosphere and try to find the one principle that will set me free.  Oh and it has to be easy, obviously.  You can see where this is going right?  It does not exist.  Sure there is plenty of good advice but you have to apply it, not just read it willy nilly and assume it will sink in to useful depth.

So I went to the next place that I go when I need help.  Books! I do work for a library after all.  I had ran across a title that a bunch of people recommend and found out that it was a new and improved edition for the modern world.  It is called Your Money or Your Life.   It is a truly excellent book that breaks down your relationship with money and forces you to acknowledge your problems with it.  In my instance I have found that writing down every single purchase made me realize that while my budget was great if I didn’t use said budget I might as well get it framed and call it art.

So that is where I have been for the past month, started in February.  And one of the authors points has really struck home for me.  He makes the case that this should be a non judgmental process.  You don’t include motivation or how you felt at the time but just what you spent.  This has truly been eyeopening to me.

Now unfortunately we don’t have the newest edition that deals with the new tools of smart phones and the like.  But the basic principles they lay out are useful with any tools, you just have to do them.  I recommend this book to everyone.