{"id":1703,"date":"2018-02-23T03:00:17","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T09:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kerryaclark.com\/?p=1703"},"modified":"2018-09-05T18:24:37","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T23:24:37","slug":"improve-your-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/improve-your-spending\/","title":{"rendered":"Improve Your Spending"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 4 Actions That Improved Our Spending<\/span><\/h2>\n

For a number of years, Pamela and I<\/a> could not get a handle around the money we had coming in as opposed to what was going out. \u00a0No matter how much we made, we would spend more than what we had in hand. \u00a0It was like someone was taking funds out of our accounts without us knowing. \u00a0It was like having a purse with a hole in its bottom. \u00a0No matter what we did, we were always short. \u00a0<\/span>No matter how much money you have, it\u2019s less than what you think.<\/b><\/span> \u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>We needed a plan of action that was different from anything we\u2019d done before. <\/span>\u00a0Any time you repeat a process, you can be assured that the results don\u2019t change.<\/span><\/b> \u00a0So we needed a different approach. \u00a0Because we are people of faith, we tried prayer, prayer didn\u2019t seem to be working to correct this problem. At least not until we prayed differently for a new method to account for what we had. \u00a0Our prayer then became how can we improve our spending trends?<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>How can we improve our spending trends?<\/b>
\n<\/b>First, you can\u2019t improve what you can not monitor. \u00a0We needed a way to see and account for our spending patterns. \u00a0Where is the money going? \u00a0This led us back to Mint<\/a>, such a great tool. \u00a0Before we get to the specifics, keep in mind that prayer alone isn\u2019t always enough and neither is faith. \u00a0They both need something from you, action. \u00a0\u00a0Faith [and prayer] without any actions produces nothing. \u00a0There\u2019s some work you must do. \u00a0In this case identify the trends.<\/span><\/p>\n

Find out where all the money goes.<\/b>
\n<\/b>Where\u2019s your money going?<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>Mint<\/a> has a feature that allows one to see their spending trends in a pie chart or bar chart. \u00a0You can see the whole pie and the pieces will indicate in what areas you spent your money. \u00a0It\u2019s always a surprise to see that most spending occurs [not in bills] in shopping. \u00a0Seeing the trends will cause you to think differently and eliminate areas of waste.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Evaluate the intervals of your spending.\"\"<\/b>
\n<\/b>How often are you spending your money?<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>Trying to calculate your spending trends by hand is almost impossible today. \u00a0The transactions are never ending. \u00a0So you really need a tool like Mint<\/a> that can help you see the intervals of your spending. \u00a0You can then and only then take action to improve it. \u00a0Mint lets you review spending in various time intervals (last 7 day, 30 days, the past years and custom intervals).<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Place your spending transactions into meaningful groups.<\/b>
\n<\/b>What makes up your spending categories?<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>Mint<\/a> groups your spending into categories, so that you can see by grouping whether fuel, groceries, coffee, etc. is the cause of your spending pain points. \u00a0Using Mint\u2019s<\/a> Trend pie chart, you can click on the pie piece of your interest and drill down to individual items. \u00a0Not only can you see by category, you can see by merchant which is very insightful. \u00a0Do you know how much of your money Starbucks<\/a> is getting? \u00a0How about Walmart<\/a>? \u00a0One of our biggie\u2019s is Chick-fil-a<\/a>. \u00a0You will be surprised at how those small purchases add up to ungodly amounts in a month\u2019s time.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Create a plan of action to make adjustments from the patterns.<\/b>
\n<\/b>What can you deduce from what you\u2019ve noticed in your spending?<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>For Pamela and me<\/a>, it was that we had more than enough to pay our primary bills, but we made frivolous shopping more of a primary. \u00a0What Mint<\/a> or the above steps was able to show us was that we had enough, we just used it unwisely. \u00a0We made the wrong groupings the priority. \u00a0Actually we had no priority; no plan means you plan to fail and fail we did. \u00a0So we made a plan to reverse the order. \u00a0We made bills the priority and not our miscellaneous spending. \u00a0It was just that simple. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s time you look at where it\u2019s going, when you\u2019re spending. It\u2019s time you group the spending, and use this information to make a plan. \u00a0Planning is everything.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Today is Friday!<\/span>
\n<\/span>At Kerry A. Clark & Co, our goal is to provide tips that will lead us all to doing \u201cThe Business of Running Our Life\u201d better. \u00a0In this message, we\u2019ve discussed 4 simple actions you can adopt that will lead to better spending habits. \u00a0Let me know what you think and any questions you might have. \u00a0Leave us a comment.<\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The Family Plan Binder<\/a>\"\"<\/a> is available now!

<\/p>\nOur team has worked very hard putting it together. We designed it to help you and your family move the needle forward in making your life your business. \nFind out more about the Family plan here.<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 4 Actions That Improved Our Spending For a number of years, Pamela and I could not get a handle around the money we had coming in as opposed to what was going out. \u00a0No matter how much we made, we would spend more than what we had in hand. \u00a0It was like someone was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,51,49],"tags":[63],"class_list":{"0":"post-1703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-accounting","8":"category-mint","9":"category-the-financial-birds-eye-view","10":"tag-mint","11":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/20180223-TIF-Blog-Improve-Your-Spending.png?fit=760%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4jb7V-rt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1703"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1993,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703\/revisions\/1993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}