It’s not how much you earn, it’s how much you save that dictates how wealthy you will become. I believe this to be both true and realistic. The fact is you can never accumulate wealth if you spend more than you earn. There are so many financial theories that rely on this simple notion. Here are three:

  • Make your Money work for you.
  • Invest in High Yield Savings
  • Pay down debts

Now we see that saving money is better than spending money, but we know that already!! The question becomes, what are you spending your money on?? Most people have no idea how much they throw away each and every day. Well, its time to uncover the mystery as to where all your money has gone.

I have guided many through the perils of over spending and the first step is to track the spending or in my case “Monitor Your Savings”. The old fashion method is pretty straight forward. Keep a pad with you at all times and write down each and every penny you spend. After 30 days go back to day one and review all your spending habits and simply cut out the expenses that you are spending too much money on.

Most people would rather use some digital form of recording and many already use Quicken or Microsoft Money. Both great tools. Here is a list of some of the better websites that allow you to track your spending habits.

  • Geezeo - Cool Budgeting site with nice graphs and applications. Geared more for budgeting. Software links to your accounts and bill pay.
  • Mint - I think this is a strong site but many feel it is lacking in applications.
  • Mvelopes - This seems to have the most well rounded software and applications.
  • Shoeboxed - This is the Netflix of the field. You mail in your receipts in a prepaid envelope and they upload that data onto a secure site you can access and manipulate. They do the dirty work.
  • Wesabe - Great interaction between site and users. Groups, Forums, and a Blog offering advice to members.
  • Yodlee - The money Center is probably the best service out there.

These are just the ones that I have found and I am sure there are countless ways to count your money but the point here is that you have to have some structured method of monitoring how you spend your money and how you save it.

Related Articles:

Spend Less Than you Earn - The Wrong Way to Think

Every Dollar Counts

Plant Your Money Tree

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