Ipseom

So what now? It’s time to figure out whether your spending and investing lines up with the values, dreams, and financial goals you’ve just identified. A good way to do this is by cracking your family’s expenses for the next month. Save every bill and every receipt, even for a doughnut or a newspaper. At the end of the month, group those receipts and bills into categories and add up the totals so you can see exactly where your money went. (Computer software programs such as Quicken and Microsoft Money can help you track your finances, and if you don’t use one of these programs, it might be worth considering.) If the numbers reflect your values and are helping you achieve your dreams and goals, that’s great. If they don’t, you’ll want to make some adjustments. Maybe you can forgo the muffin and cappuccino every morning, thereby saving hundreds of dollars a year (and who knows how many calories). Or maybe you’ll want to brown-bag your lunch, cut back on some of those premium cable stations, or buy one less pair of shoes a season.
You’ll want to evaluate your investments in the same way. The question to always keep in mind is whether your choices support your values, dreams, and goals—in short, whether they support your current lifestyle as well as the lifestyle you’d like to achieve.
Once you’ve delineated what’s important to you and your family, checked your spending, and started to invest, you’ll want to review your progress periodically in light of any life or market changes, to make sure that your plan is still meeting your ever-changing needs. Equally important will be to make sure that those long-term dreams are still viable, as new goals often require a new game plan.