Building a Firm Foundation

With financial literacy, it's easiest to start with the money you see every day. How confident are you in managing your daily, weekly, and monthly expenses?  You may not track it down to the penny, but do you know where your money is coming from and where it is going? Click here to see a simple worksheet from the Provident Living website to help you chart it out. We have been counseled to live within our means and spend less than we make. Elder Wirthlin said,

"All too often a family's spending is governed more by their yearning than by their earning. They somehow believe that their life will be better if they surround themselves with an abundance of things. All too often all they are left with is avoidable anxiety and distress.”
"Earthly Debts, Heavenly Debts," Ensign, May 2004, 42

If you are like me, the desire to live within your means and avoid that distress isn't the hard part, it's keeping up with it all! It takes time and energy to track your finances. To simplify, some people try going cash-based. You can't spend more than you have at the grocery store if all you have is cash! If that's not your style, try software programs like Quicken or Excel to track incoming and outgoing expenses. This takes set-up and monitoring time, but can give you the visual and detailed information you need.

Last but not least, you might go online. (But make sure you have good security on your personal computer and Internet set-up!) Several of you asked about this in our Q&A box during December. Signing up for an online account with your bank allows you to see your balances quickly and track debits, etc. If you're using online billpay, you can link the accounts together for monitoring. Another option is a site like http://www.mint.com/. I reference this one because it has a good reputation and several layers of security. I have not personally used mint.com, but I asked a credible source who has (and she's not getting any kickback for this!). She explains how she uses it and some of the features it offers:

Mint.com is a web-based, Clark Howard-approved, budgeting and cash flow monitoring system. It contains easy-to-use features ranging from budget setting and monitoring, cash flow tracking, savings goal setting and monitoring, investment tracking, debt tracking, as well as basic weekly and monthly totals.


I find it more user-friendly than Quicken or Excel. It allows you to determine which accounts (bank accounts, credit cards, investment accounts, mortgages, etc.) to track by inputting account numbers and online information. Sounds unsecured and unsafe, but each step is password protected. Mint will reach to your accounts to download your financial data based on the information that you have set up. Set up time depends on the number of accounts you want it to update. Estimate about 30 minutes to setup 5 accounts (e.g. savings, checking, credit card, mortgage, investment).

Each time you log in, it will give you an update on all your accounts, automatically download transactions, and even code them based on your budget categories. The program is complete with charts, graphs and a monthly tracking chart that shows your expenditures in your budget categories overlaid with the day of the month (i.e., gives you a visual to see if your grocery budget is only half spent when you are half way through the month). I find the visuals easy to understand, and the website easy to navigate.

Mint.com will send you emails when you have an alert on your account, if you have gone over budget in a category, as well as a weekly summary of your expenditures.

I access Mint several times per week to tweak budget categories (depending on whether I bought groceries, home supplies, clothes, etc. at Target or Walmart) and to check overall budget expenditures.

Bottom line, do what it takes to get familiar with your general financial picture. And don't forget... no matter how you do it, just think of that great reward! Greater peace and confidence. That will make the time and effort all worth it.