I would like to share the different metrics and statistics that I track in my monthly personal finance tracker to help others with their tracking. I am also looking to get feed back on what other metrics the community tracks so I can expand my own tracking capabilities. Personally, I prefer to track my spending rather than budget my spending. Budgeting feels limiting and I already have that "frugal gene" which helps me control my spending.
Currently, I use google sheets for simplicity of using on my phone and computer and it is what I am familiar with. I have tried a few different apps that consolidate your accounts but I like the flexibility I have to make my own expense and income categories. It is a little cumbersome to manually enter each expense but it allows me to be precise with how each purchase is categorized and it keeps me constantly mindful about how much I am spending.
I have several categories for organizing my expenses which are: Gas, Groceries/Household, Eating Out, Travel and Experiences, Clothing/Attire, Car Maintenance and Repairs, Loan Payments, Health and Wellness, Other and Housing
These categories fit my lifestyle, how I see my money and allows for some key numbers to be calculated.
I track my income from my W-2 job and have space for extra income. I also track the contributions I make to different investment accounts such as 401K, HSA Brokerage etc.
Now for the metrics I track each month.
- Each category of expenses, income, and investments gets a total for the month, and I will be adding a percentage cell in the expenses to track what percentage of my spending each category accounts for.
- There is also a cell that subtracts out my loan payments as well as my rent payment to give me an idea of what my life costs outside of debt and a mortgage payment/rent payment.
- I have a total overall expense, income, and investment stat.
- There is a Net Income/Gross whatever you want to call it which also is shown as a Savings Rate.
The annual metrics that I track include.
- Totals across the whole year for Expenses, Income, and then a Net.
- Each category for expenses and income are summed and also averaged out over the year.
- There are investment totals to help keep track of contribution limits.
- Then the annual savings rate of course.
I hope this can help others to either start tracking their finances or help them to improve upon their tracking.
I am looking to expand my tool with recommendations from you guys, the community. What Metrics do you track, why, and how does it help you?
Thanks for reading and commenting :)
