Financial planning like any journey begins with the first step but the first step is only the beginning you must continue stepping until you complete the journey.

Over the past eight and a half year, the focus of my work has been to "help you to painlessly take control of your money to create wealth for you and your family."

To do this, I offer you financial planning help on defining your goals and then identify and apply the actions and efforts necessary to making your dreams a reality.

You know that the shortest distance between any two points is a straight line. Your dreams represent a point in the future at which you desire to arrive. You will agree then, that, if you know where you want to go, you now need to know where you are before you can get there –your starting point!

No matter how you try, there is no way you can draw a line without having the starting point as a reference, nor can you reach your dreams if you do not know where you are today.Financial planning allows you to do just that.

While your net worth statement provided the first snapshot of where you stand financially it’s only the first step in your financial planning.

Just as you will not reach any destination or complete any journey on the first step, you cannot achieve financial freedom on the first step.  It is simply that, a journey on which you must constantly identify attainable steps between where you are and where you want to be (your goals) and then take that step.

Now that you know your starting point and your destination, you will be able to look ahead and look back simultaneously and know that you are making progress, as you will see where you came from as well as know where you are.  

In business the person who are most successful are the ones who understand the numbers that support their business.  This is also the case with your individual lives. Everyone could make money but only those who understand the numbers will be successful.  

So here is a very simple exercise that you can use to discover a bit more about who and where you are now.

How many times have you heard someone, including yourself say,

“I don’t know where my money goes!”

Well, this exercise will help you understand exactly where your money goes.  and it wont take you a long time to find out.

For just one month, track every cent that you spend.  It’s that simple. Buy yourself a notebook that is small enough to carry with you and let it be your constant companion for the next 30 days and record how you spend your money.

Keep it in your purse or with your wallet and every time you take any money out even a quarter to buy some candy or a newspaper, record that expense in your notebook. Include your usual living expenses like:

1. Rent or Mortgage
2. Loan Payments
3. Groceries
4. School Fees
5. Bus Fare or Car Payments
6. Utilities (electrical, telephone and water bills)
7. Lunch etc.

1. Do not judge yourself for anything you purchase.
   
2. Don’t change any of your spending habits,
   
3. just observe and record your spending as though you were observing someone else. 
   
4. Most of all be honest with yourself because you want to build the clearest picture possible of your starting point, as it will serve to help you know where your money goes.