How often do you actually check on your money? And when you check on your money what do you do?
I have a personal routine where I do this weekly and also monthly. And there is no better time than now to start. I also check in on my money every day just to make sure nothing actually happens in my accounts that I wasn't expecting, checking in on your money weekly is much more advisable.
I consider checking on my money to be:
- logging into each of my bank and credit card accounts
- scrolling through the latest activity there and making sure that all of the transactions are ones that I made
- adding any new transactions to my budget spreadsheet
- then I also send up a thank you prayer for my money being there for me and supporting me.
Since I do this check pretty much daily, it only takes me a few minutes to do this. It may take a little longer when you do it once a week. But I have come across so many people that don't even check on their money at all.
Checking on your money is one thing, the other more important part is doing the reflection. And I'll be honest, doing these reflections isn't something that I used to do regularly. When I started to do them regularly, my money situations started to change even more because I was actually looking at what happened with my money over the past week and the past month.
Here are some prompts to help you with reflecting on your money at the end of each week:
- What were your biggest money wins this week?
- How do these wins make you feel?
- Where did you spend money that you weren't planning to do?
- How did this spending make you feel after you spent it?
- Where did you spend money that surprised you this week?
- Where did you hate spending money this week?
- Where did you love spending money this week?
- What plan are you making for your money for this upcoming week?
- What do you really want to change about your money this upcoming week?
- Would you consider this past week to be an overall win or loss in your money game?
- Now that the week is over, how do you feel about your money right now, right here in this moment?
- Are you actually happy about your current money situation? If yes, why? If no, what needs to change and how can you start changing it?
Feel free to use any, all or none of these questions in your weekly reflection. Maybe you already have questions that you enjoy reflecting on with your money. But when you do these reflections on a week by week basis, you'll notice how things with your money start to change. Some of the habits that you had with money will start to change as well because now you are paying more attention to what is happening with your money. That is how it has worked for me and all of the clients that I have worked with as well.
It's not always easy to create a new habit. And it also not always easy to face your money. But the more often you do this, it ends up getting easier to face the truths around your money and in the end, actually make some changes too.
I also like to add to the reflections I do at the end of the month, so I'm going to give you some prompts for the end of the month reflections as well:
- Do I really know where my money went this month? Can I actually account for my spending this month? Where did I spend money that wasn't planned?
- Am I happy with how I spent my money this month?
- What is the biggest lesson I learned regarding my money this month?
- What am I changing that I do with money for this upcoming month?
- How did I do with achieving my money goals for the month?
- What are my money goals for this new month?
- Do I have any regrets from this past month in regards to my money?
- What have been my biggest wins from this month?
- Am I actually happy with the way money is coming to me? If not, what can I actually change? If so, can I put in more effort and bring in more money?
- Where is my biggest weakness when it comes to spending money?
- Where is my biggest strength when it comes to spending money?
- How well did I actually track my money this month?
- How well did I stick to my spending plan/budget/(whatever word works best for you here) for this month?
- Any other reflections that come to mind for this month?
Again, feel free to use any, all or none of these questions for your monthly reflection.
But by doing these reflections and checking in with your money, you'll notice your patterns and you'll see what your habits with money are. And by noticing and seeing these, you'll be able to make a change in your life, and more importantly change your financial habits. Most of the time, we can't make a change with our money because we don't even know what we are changing, except for the fact that we want to have more money in our lives.
Also, keep in mind that putting money into your savings accounts counts as a form of spending money (at least in my book it does). By putting money into savings, you are putting it into another account than your normal checking account, so it is no longer available for spending.
So tell me, do you check in on your money? Do you reflect on the past week or month with your money? Or is this something that you are going to start doing now? Tell me in the comments below what you do each month to know if you are on the right track or not.
Thrive Leads Shortcode could not be rendered, please check it in Thrive Leads Section!
