Financial Management Woes
I have always been on the opposite end when it came to managing finances. And opposite of the side to prudent financial management. I have always seen my Dad, and then my brother, on that end.
My brother takes on from my Dad in being very meticulous not only about day to day finances (my Dad wrote daily expenses for years) but also about investments (Dad kept records of every FD and every share he purchased. Not only that he used to record dates of dividend payouts as well). My brother has been doing, if not as much as Dad, quite a bit of it himself as well.
I have always been of the opinion that “look at the overall picture” should be fine with the financial planning. I would occasionaly whip up a budget for myself (inflows, outflows etc.), get a rough idea how much I would end up with moolah in the bank and that would be it. I wouldn’t even bother to save the excel file. I did pretty OK. Infact I still do. The only thing I keep a track of regularly is my equity investments (Thanks to ICICI Direct). I have tried my hand at a few thingies like MS Money, Buxfer, Mint etc. but never got down to being disciplined about it.
So a few weeks back my Mom poked me about how bad I am at keeping records (I am bad at filing bills/receipts etc. too) and lauded my brother (which was expected), I decided to check with my brother on how he manages to do that. Turns out he has a simple excel file that does the trick. Ofcourse this one only tracks daily expenses but gives an overview about your bank balances etc. He has a complicated one to manage his investments. The most amazing thing about tracking one’s expenses is that you can figure where you are spending money uselessly and the ones which are necessary (but you tend to forget).
Since the times are looking grim and I think it will be wise to make every penny count, I am going to give it a shot too. What better day to start than the start of the financial year.
Ironically its April Fools’ day too. Hope I don’t end up making a joke of this. Watch this space for more updates
