As you get deeper into reading, “Your Money or Your Life”, the steps are starting to fall in place as chapter 3, “Where is it all going”, examines where your money goes every month.

Your daily log in part 2 would have helped establish what you spend each day. Compiling the daily information into each month and monthly information each year allows you to chart the flow of money into the various categories you have established Chapter focuses on your “Monthly Tabulation” that provides you with important information on where the dollars and cents end up after each month leaving you with lesser dollars than when you r you received your monthly paycheck.

Key Takeaways by Panzer

This part of the 9 step program is about recording keeping and information gathering. Knowing how much you spend on the stuff in your life is useful only when you make use of that information later to modify your behaviour in spending. This is where the other steps become more useful as you have built up sufficient data to help modify your future behaviour.

I remember when I was young my mother used to pick on my slouching posture and ask me to straighten up in public. This was a bit embarrassing but served to make me aware of what my posture was.
Step 3 in tracking your monthly tabulation aims to make you aware of what bits of your relationship with money is not quite right so that you can straighten it out. To change a bad habit, we must first be aware of it, then we modify it and finally we correct or stop it.

The authors give helpful categories of the various ways we can spend money and it’s an eye-opener to know how our precious income is frittered away on consumption in our lives.

Related Articles:

1. Your Money or Your Life - Panzer’s Book Review - Part 1
2. Your Money or Your Life - Panzer’s Book Review - Part 2