Whats get measured gets managed...

While the above statement is generally said for a company, i feel that its also true for individuals.

Why measuring works:

There are several reasons why what gets measured gets managed:

1. When you measure something, you bring your attention to it

This is the first benefit you get by measuring. How can you manage if we don’t even pay attention to it? By measuring you direct your attention to it.

2. When you measure something, you know where you are

Sometimes we don’t realize the severity of a problem we have until we see the facts. That’s why measuring something is important. It helps you see the truth of where you actually are. In personal finance, for instance, it’s easy to think that you already live wisely. Only after you see your income and expenses by numbers might you realize that you have problem. This realization in turn gives you the motivation to do something about it.

3. When you measure something, you see your progress

Not only can measuring help you know where you are, it also helps you see your progress. You will see whether or not you have done the right thing and – if you do – whether or not you have done enough. Seeing how far you’ve gone also motivates you to keep moving forward.

How should we measure:

I think the biggest factor here is keeping it simple, we as a person cannot do complicated measurement for long. That’s why you need to keep it as simple as possible. The simpler it is, the more likely you will stick with it in the long term.

So keep it simple, and keep measuring your expenses.

What do you think? Do you have thoughts or ideas about managing personal finance?

Are you bold enough to share your expenses with friends....

Help us integrate trackspends with your favourite social sites .......

These are the first of blogs which we want to float for figuring what/how we can integrate trackspends with any of the existing social sites like twitter/facebook/orkut etc.

So how do we integrate trackspends with twitter ? Here are couple of options and their pros and cons :

1) Use twitter direct messages to allow users to update their expenses - Badly failed - Not even single user did Twitter Direct messages even though we have implemented and released it? See the details here and you feel the idea is right but not implemented properly write us

2) Allow users to update their expenses sent to trackspends to twitter feeds, so whenever you sent trackspends a message the message will be updated in your twitter feeds so that your friends and followers can view it. Whats the benefit of it ? to be frank i dont see any real benefits apart from just doing a comparison or informing friends / followers about day to day expenses which may lead to heated conversations and discussions. ? But again whats your thoughts on this ? Do you approve it ?

Also let us know any other ideas for integrating with twitter, or you just feel that its better to be off twitter add comments here?

What do you think is the best way to track your expenses

[SURVEYS 1]

Now use Twitter Direct Messages to track your expenses...

Now you can also track your expenses from Twitter. Add your twitter username in Trackspends account and  follow trackspends in twitter (www.twitter.com/trackspends) and send direct messages to trackspends as :

d trackspends 100 rs in lunch, 30 rs in parking

Your account will be updated with the above expenses just like SMS based updation. For more details visit: Twitter How it works .

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