Why I Don’t Want A Fancy App That Tracks Everything!
There are some really fancy apps out there for tracking everything from what you spent on groceries to how long you spent meditating in the last month.
I can see the benefit of tracking some stuff - but meditation? Isn’t tracking on a digital app sort of defeating the object? Anyway I digress, in a non-fun ranty way.
Budgeting and money tracking apps - yes they are all the rage and if you love them go for it, but in my opinion the simpler you can keep it the better, and here’s why:
Hiding things from yourself is a really good way to save.
Our brains are at the same time masters of over-complication and a bit daft. I don’t know why but it’s true. How many times have you pondered if you just spelt ‘the’ the right way, or spent hours looking for the keys that you hung on the ‘keys’ hook in the kitchen?
So when we save our money in an account that we can’t see - guess what happens - yep you are ahead of me here - we forget that it’s there. Et voila! Savings are born because, well, we forgot we had it so we didn’t spend it.
Do you really need another excuse to be checking your phone?
Being constantly connected to our devices means that we forget to switch off and be present, and if there’s one thing I’ve noticed about the feeling of wealth - it always happens when I am present and connected.
I have a sudden urge to break into a rendition of the theme from ‘Why Don’t You’ #showingmyagealert - “why don’t you, why don’t you, why don’t you, just switch off your television set and go out and do something less boring instead” except substitute television for smartphone. If you are under 40 you might need to Google “Theme from Why Don’t You’ to know what I’m going on about! You can thank me later!
Anyway you get the picture!
It can make you obsessive
I feel that a healthy relationship with money is one where you don’t spend so much time thinking and worrying about it.
This is, for most of us, probably something that is more of a practice than a decision that we make once (when was the last time you stopped thinking about something because you were told to? That’s like me saying don’t think about pink elephants!?
We live in a world (well at least in the Western culture) where money is in our faces one way or another most days - strange for something we generally avoid talking about.
When it comes to money it’s more important to have a structure (some say a practice) where you set aside time to sit down and make conscious decisions about the intentions and purpose you have for your money and check in on how it is aligning with your values.
Picking up your phone every 10 minutes to check your bank balance is definitely not that.
That’s not to say that there is no place for apps - I use one myself and I recommend it often. I use Monzo to manage my day to day spending. Literally, just the money that I get to spend on a discretionary basis each month - all my bills are in another account - all my savings are in other accounts - the only account I look at is what I have left to spend for that month. Everything else I look at just once a quarter. This way I get to manage my money in minutes and it doesn’t become an obsession.
The only time I find myself thinking about money more than I would like to - okay obsessing is probably a better description - is when it feels like there is not enough. Not enoughness is a bigger issue than numbers on a bank statement. I think thats probably a whole other blog and you can read some of my thoughts on what is ‘enough’ here.
Hi there I’m Gail Bainbridge - money coach and mentor. I am on a mission to transform our relationships with money. I teach people to find money that they didn’t know they had for the things that are important to them. If you enjoyed this blog sign up to my newsletter to be the first to read all my money musings.