Check the mirror, the numbers will reflect you
- B.J. Yoder: Young Money
- October 25, 2022
- 518
Everyone reading this has a mirror somewhere in their house and knows how it works. You stand in front of it, most likely to see if your outfit looks good — or in my case, just to check if the pants and shirt match — and it gives you honest feedback immediately. It will tell you if something is too tight, doesn’t look right or if you should change. The mirror never lies, and that’s why so many people hate it.
For finances, we do not have a mirror or even a magic mirror that tells us “You spent way too much this month at Target” or “you need to make more money,” but we do have cold, hard numbers in finances. If you talk to any math or accounting teacher, they will always tell you numbers never lie. They tell the truth as to where your money went and came from, well, unless you are Enron.
We can look at multiple places to give us the “mirror” in our finances, because they reflect you and your activities. The first place to start is credit or debit card statements. In this day and age, we don’t have to wait on the paper statements anymore, we can check the app every week and see where our money went. It can be done down the day. This statement will tell you in a hurry where your true intentions lie. If you are constantly talking about how, you never have enough money to do anything, but you consistently see names like “Chipotle,” “Doordash” and “Amazon” show up on the statement, it shows that you aren’t really that hurt about never having enough money, you just allocate it to other things. If you are fed up with having those names constantly visiting your statement, feel free to uninvite them and put the money elsewhere.
The other “mirror” that seemed to smack me in the face last month is the budget. Feel free to paper budget, use Mint or EveryDollar, but if you are going to use one, keep track of everything, and I mean everything. When a category turns bright red from overspending, it’s a clear indication that you messed up. My wife and I managed to overspend in three categories last month, but we were able to use the excuse that we are still in the test run of figuring this out.
The three categories were gas, restaurants, and groceries. I know the first and the last categories shouldn’t surprise anyone because it seems like it takes double the money for half the food at the grocery store and who would have thought gas would be in the high $4 range?
But what about that middle category? Sure, we went on a weekend vacation to visit my brother and we ate out a lot, but why didn’t we budget for that? We both know the restaurant category could be reduced, but the last things we want to do is to take the “Oh well, there’s always next month” attitude — insert any Cleveland Browns joke here. That’s never a good attitude to take, because it admits defeat before you even try to do something else. Whether it’s budgeting or physical appearance, this attitude won’t change what you see.
What is your mirror showing you? Is it like me where we are spending a little too much on eating out? Or is it showing you something bigger? Maybe you are capable of a better paying job and it’s time to make the leap because you are tired of ending up with too much month at the end of your budget. No matter what it is, be honest with yourself and make the needed changes.
Holmes County native BJ Yoder is an insurance agent by day and a finance enthusiast by night. This column is for informational purposes only. He can be emailed at benjamin.john.yoder@gmail.com.