One of the greatest mistakes you can make in managing your finances is not knowing where your money is going. About 90% of my clients do not know exactly how they spend their money. Some may have small notebooks where they scrawl their monthly accounts but when they start to put everything down on paper, they are always surprised - if not shocked - to see the real state of their financial affairs.

Money matters simply scare people. They are terrified to know how out of control their finances are. Although this is understandable, it is precisely what needs to be done before you can start working on a solution.

Planning and goal setting are critical to your success if you want to become financially secure. The 2 key traits of people who do not achieve this are:

1. They tend to spend all of their money and, 
2. They do not know what they spend their money on.

This is often referred to as "unconscious spending".

When I teach people about money management, I teach them in the same way that successful businesses manage their operations - but simplified for personal finances. The one main feature of successful business financial management is 'managing by percentages'. In a large business, major expense items, such as salaries, rent or advertising, are measured as a percentage of sales, and operating performance is analysed according to these percentages. There is no reason why you should not manage your own finances in this way.

When designing THE MONEY PROGRAM for my individual clients, I incorporated a simple percentage formula that is fool-proof and extremely easy to use. I will describe this in more detail in later guides. 

If you are tired of worrying about money, now is the time to change. Take a little time out and start to think about what you really want. Set up a plan, follow a budget calculated on percentages, and watch your money grow.

Happy planning!

Ann Marosy,

FreedomBooks2000

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Ann Marosy is an accountant and former Fortune 500 financial controller. Ann is now a full-time writer and conducts workshops on money management practices. She is the author of The Money Program and Money Rules: The 7 Simple Rules of Money Management, now available at: FreedomBooks2000