Why I don't track my expenses?

It is common for financially savvy folks to budget and track their daily, monthly and annual personal or family expenses. I used to have a spreadsheet to keep track of my spending during my uni days but I have stopped doing that since 8 years ago.

Laziness? Lack of self discipline? Yes partly but those bad habits are not the main reasons.

Our Expenses become the Revenue of businesses
When I buy a $3 cai png (vegetables rice), my 2 dollar note and 1 dollar coin goes into the cash register of the mixed vegetable rice stall and becomes the revenue of the stall. When I buy a new iPhone through recontracting my mobile plan with Starhub, the $847 I paid contributes to the revenue of Starhub. The money we spent no longer is our money. The money we spent become the revenue of businesses. I do not want to track money that do not belong to me.


Budgeted Low Expenses
Though I did not track my expenses, I actually allocated a fix amount of $300 cash and $700 of credit for spending every month. I have the discipline to channel my monthly cashflow to savings in war chest first before allocating to expenses. In a way I will not exceed my allocation for spending because I have prioritised beefing up war chest over spending. I feel comfortable since I can eat whatever I like within $300 and buy whatever I need withing $700 using credit card for 30 days in a month. I do not want to go down to the exact dollars and cents that I have spent.

Channel away time and effort
I would rather spend the time updating daily spending item list, calculating total monthly expenditure on finding next investment, ways to earn more passive income, how to increase my cashflow and assets and cashflow management instead. I think tracking expenses is a micro-managerial aspect of personal financial management that is still useful and important but does not suit everyone. We can still focus on the big picture such as planning for financial freedom and retirement without tracking every single cent that we spent.


Have a great sense of freedom and free from stress
Free from the shackles of spending money, there will not be any guilt if I overspend on a nicer meal or buy a nice shirt that I see in Uniqlo. When there is flight promotion, I will not feel disappointed to go for the booking. I buy and spend whatever thing I need whenever, wherever. I do not need to worry about spending more than last month or last year. This will make living less stressful and more enjoyable.

Focus on tracking Net Worth
I do not want to rely on tracking spending to cut down or control my expenses. I find it enjoyable to focus on tracking what I have to motivate myself instead. It will become obvious if my net worth decrease or increase at a slower rate for certain month and I can find out the real cause due to portfolio drop or overspending. Having a target net worth, dividends cashflow or portfolio value will spur us to reduce unnecessary spending in order to achieve personal targets.

In a nutshell, we need to find the most comfortable path towards achieving our goals. Budgeting and tracking expenditure is a useful but not necessary way for everyone to limit or control spending.

Thanks for reading!

With Love & Peace,
Qiongster