Over the past few months, when working on mindless tasks at work, I've been catching up on The Suze Orman Show on iTunes (free podcast - woo hoo!). It has me in a mild panic, as I'm 36 years old and I know my finances are NOT where they need to be.
In my last panic, a path became clear to me. Before I can think about what I need to do, where I should be, how I should manage my money... I need to figure out how much money I have coming in, and how much I have going out. On top of that, I need to learn WHERE it's going. I have a good idea of how much I have coming in, so I need to right now figure out how much is going out and where it's going.
For now I'm not going to worry about changing anything. I'm just going to dig into my bank and credit card statements and figure out where my money is going and how much is going out.
Here's my general situation:
I have an ok job. Make enough money. I have a mortgage on a condo w/ my partner. I have a checking account and a savings account. I have a 401k through work. (All of those are WAY underfunded.) Also, my partner and I have 1 joint checking account that we both pay into and then pay our mutual bills with (and use when we go out for dinner and/or drinks sometimes too).
By the end of March 2011, I will have 1) filed my taxes and 2) figured out how much of my income I'm spending and on what. I will then share via my blog what worked best for me to complete this stage!
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