Professional shares pro tips on how to improve personal finances: ‘I'll start by saying that I've been tracking my expenses for about 6 years, and financially, it completely changed my life’

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Olivia Arocena • Writer and Editor
Sep 10, 2026 4:00 PM EDT

The way I see it, we should all receive financial education from an early age so we can successfully avoid generating debt or terrible, otherwise avoidable mistakes in our youth

I don't know why we keep teenagers away from the financial world when it literally starts occupying so much of our lives the minute we join the workforce. I'm not saying we should torment them with our financial worries, and I understand general budgeting knowledge and administration are already part of what some families teach their children; still, I definitely think it should be a topic in our formal education as well.

In an ideal world, we would put knowledge into practice from a young age and be pros by the time we reach our twenties.

Finances weren't usually discussed in my household, so I grew up thinking mostly everyone started with pretty much the same opportunities from the get-go. Only later did I realize there were people far less fortunate than me, and people who had much more fortune to begin with. I know this is a rather bleak realization, because it's the moment you realize you have to put in three times the effort somebody with rich parents has to put in to start a project, for example.

Still, this rather terrible realization is also key to succeeding and making conscious, lucid decisions when entering adulthood.

The person who wrote the post below says their secret is tracking expenses and not budgeting. Some people might think differently, but the opinion is valid and worth listening to (or reading through).

Whether you are trying to recover from terrible financial decisions or looking to improve your financial administration, this advice is worth looking into.

In the end, it's all about what works for you, but still, every technique you use will include some form of expense tracking; you only have to find the one that fits your lifestyle. At any rate, you can't organize expenses you don't even know you have!

Trust me, sometimes we lie to ourselves and think we cook super often, but when we take an honest look, we find out we're DoorDashing every two days, lol.

So congrats on wanting to fix your finances and say hello to the new, abundant you!

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    via Jakub Żerdzicki

    Get ready to fix your finances!


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  • PLEASE DO NOT CREATE A BUDGET!

    Before you panic, this is just my opinion... but I'm a professional and you should take me very seriously ;)
    via Ok-Resolve1877
  • I'll start by saying that I've been tracking my expenses for about 6 years, and financially, it completely changed my life.
    via Ok-Resolve1877
  • Ever since then, I've been obsessed with personal finance. I did it all: YouTube videos, finance books, blog posts, budgeting tips, money podcasts, you name it.
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  • If it had anything to do with managing money, I was interested. Over those 6 years, one thing has become incredibly clear to me: why
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  • people struggle to stick to a budget, or take control of their finances in the first place. To start, here are some basic observations I made:
    via Ok-Resolve1877
  • . What people spend on and what people THINK they spend on are entirely different. . People do not understand the difference between "Budgeting" and "Tracking"
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  • So to break it down. When people finally have their breaking point, or the moment where they decide to take control of their finances, they often make the mistake of saying "I'm going to start a budget"
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  • ERRHH WRONG! Back to point number 1, people have no idea what they ACTUALLY spend, so "creating a budget" will always miss the mark to where the control is required. It also skips past
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  • the "diagnosis" stage, and just goes straight into "treatment". Six years ago I had my own 'what the heck is going on with my money?' moment. I opened my banking app, tracked every
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  • expense from the previous month, and the shock I felt is what kept me tracking ever since.. The step I think most people skip is TRACKING their spending first, and my recommendation, is
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  • retroactively tracking at least 1-3 months of spending. Personally, I ended up tracking the prior 12 months because I couldn't believe what I was actually seeing.
    via Ok-Resolve1877
  • Cheezburger Image 10662553088
    via Towfiqu barbhuiya

    You should know where your money is going!


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  • And that brings be back to point number 2! Tracking vs Budgeting. To this day, I have never created a budget. From that moment, all I did was
    via Ok-Resolve1877
  • simply track my expenses, and slowly refined my spending habits as time. went on. I whole heartedly believe, if you're tracking your spending, and just being AWARE of where your money is going, your
    via Ok-Resolve1877
  • spending behaviours will naturally evolve. Here was my experience tracking: The day I opened my laptop, and tracked the last month of spending, I
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  • realized I had spent more money than I'd ever be willing to share on "dining out". I couldn't accept the amount I actually spent on restaurants and fast food. The thing was, I didn't even particularly care all
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  • that much about eating out. It had just become one of those subconscious habits. Meeting up with friends? Let's grab lunch. Someone wanted to hang out? Let's go for dinner.
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  • Weekend? Brunch. After work? Let's grab a bite. It was just my default. But when I saw what that habit was actually costing me every month, my whole perception of dining out
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  • changed. What happened next? I switched to coffee shops, going for walks, hanging out at a park. The difference? none. I didn't "sacrifice" anything, i just realized what it was
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  • costing me, and my habits changed. The point I'm trying to make is this: I think people struggle with budgeting because they start with "Category Limits" before gaining an
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  • understanding of their subconscious spending. Then they inevitably go over, get discouraged, and convince themselves they're just "not good at budgeting" or don't have the discipline to stick with it.
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  • Tracking doesn't involve sticking to something, it's lifting the veil on your spending. I think we've reached a point where people believe controlling their spending means limiting their
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  • spending, when in reality, it starts with learning their spending. Track first. Learn your habits. Then decide what actually needs to change. I'm curious if anyone else thinks this way, or if you
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  • think I'm completely off. For those of you who successfully manage your money today, what came first? Tracking your spending... or creating a budget?
    via Ok-Resolve1877
  • Cheezburger Image 10662553344
    via Aaron Lefler

    Time to pull out the calculator!

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lifestyle workplace-stories organization toxic-workplace adulting work finance budgeting finances workplace budget toxic-work-environment
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