Track These Two Key Numbers to Master Your Money
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Do you two want to get ahead with your money but you don't have the time to worry about every bill coming in and out?
Today I'll share two key numbers you need to know to stay on top of and master your money!
Why Tracking Your Numbers Matters
Most couples want to be better with money but the truth is we live pretty busy and full lives.
Maybe you guys have tried to get your finances squared away but between the accounts, your bills, and the goals you guys are trying to juggle it just seems like too much.
I get it.
That's why I want to share two key numbers that you do need to track once a month.
You can watch me share them and my take on this week's Marriage and Money Tips or check out my take right below!
Net Worth
The first number you want to track is your net worth. Your net worth is your assets minus your liabilities.
I'm really pushing this because we've seen personally how much of a motivator it was and a handy gauge of our financial health.
We've been tracking our net worth for years and for awhile I made it public here on Couple Money as we were digging out of debt.
You can see all the details here from one in 2009, but take a look at the snapshot:
As you can see by these numbers this wasn't tremendous at all. We had a whopping $4000 to our name.
(I'm just shaking my head seeing how anemic our 401(k) was. Our cars were worth more than it!)
However, we have been able to invest more we've knocked out a student loan and that number has grown tremendously.
So if you're nervous about finding out about that number, don't be. We all have to start from somewhere.
You can use this number as fuel to push forward to dump debt and save more.
Monthly Cash Flow
That second number you should track is your monthly cash flow.
Some people like to track their budget or spending plan at the transactional (which is part of the this), but the key number is what is your cash flow.
Are you saving more? Are you making more than you're spending? Or is your outgoing expenses more than what's coming in?
This is something that you want to stay on top of because if there is a problem it's easy to adjust course at the monthly level.
So there you have it – just two numbers that you have to track.
Tools to Track Your Net Worth and Cash Flow
What if you have a ton of accounts – how do you easily track your net worth and cash flow then?
A great solution is using apps and tools. There are some fantastic options and if you're looking on the app side, I recommend looking at Personal Capital, Zeta or Mint where you guys can stay on top of your finances.
What's great about these is that they automatically pull the numbers for you. Just link your accounts and then you can get that snapshot and see what's going on with your finances.
If you're looking for a completely flexible option I think you should check out Tiller.
It works with Google Sheets and what is cool about tiller is that it will automatically update your spending and bills all within your spreadsheet.
I love designing budgets in Google sheets, but one of the headaches that I personally had was I didn't want to manually add our spending.
Tiller does it automatically for you.
You can try out Tiller for a month for free here.
Use one of their awesome templates, design your own from scratch, or take a template and tweak it until it's a perfect fit for you.
Thoughts on Managing Money Together
I hope this makes money easy to manage for you. I'd love to get your take. What big goals are you working towards? How are you tracking your progress?
