Cash Flow Statement

Sometime back (when I started working), I embarked on a mission to track my expenses. I feel that it's kind of important to know how much excess $ I have each month to save/invest.

It's really interesting once you get a substantial list of data, when you can start answering questions like: How much money are you spending on average on breakfast/lunch/dinner? How long can a month salary last based on your expenditures?

These insights into data... It's sort of like personal Business Intelligence! (My field)


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It was EXTREMELY PAINFUL when I first started doing it, but I'm glad I managed to persevere and churned out half a year worth of data.

I've decided to omit all "major purchases", since they'll mess up what I really want to know - how much is my basic regular expenses.

Do give it a try (don't have to do it for life, just for like 3 months* or so) - I think it'll be worth it.

Estimations and intuitions are never that accurate compare to cold hard facts.

For example, I now know that 1 month of salary can roughly last me 6 months. From that, you can estimate how long your "emergency funds" can last you if you lose your job. Isn't that not only interesting, but extremely useful?














*Note: The more months you do it, the more accurate it'll be!