Just my own story, not advice. Everyone’s situation is different.
A short update. Not much has happened yet, but one thing did.
I’m tracking my money again. A plain table, four columns: date, money in, money out, and a comment. Every morning, right after my exercise, I open my bank app and write down what happened with my money yesterday: what came in, what went out. About five minutes. Even on days when nothing happened, I write a row: no spending, no income. No gaps since the end of October.
And at some point since I started, it happened. I wanted to improve the table. Make it look nicer. Split things into groups, add more information, just for me.
I know this feeling. It’s exactly what happened the first time (I told that story in Part 1): I kept redoing the table, and slowly I stopped filling it in.
So far, I stop myself. It isn’t always easy. I repeat what I was told once: make it work first, make it better later. The improvements can wait until there’s a question the simple table can’t answer. Right now there isn’t one.
My guess: that’s the real difference between the first try and this one. Not the table, which is simpler than ever. It’s that I notice the urge, and I don’t follow it. Will it last? I don’t know yet.
Have you ever caught yourself polishing a system instead of using it? What did you do?
Related on FinCamp: the guide Before you invest: where do you stand today? explains the first step in plain words.