Suze Orman’s Expense Sheet

The thing I like about Suze Orman is that she’s practical. Unlike other financial experts who write, blog, or have their own shows, she doesn’t sandwich her advice between disclaimers or discussions that end in the phrase “consult with your financial advisor” (as if having a personal financial advisor were as common as having a family physician). Suze doesn’t talk in vague terms or in general concepts. She tells people exactly what to do, straight out, and provides step-by-step pragmatic advice. It’s specific, understandable, and realistic. And it’s delivered with confidence, competency, and in a way that makes it seem like an obvious, common-sense plan.

Recently, Suze added this expense sheet tool to her website:

http://www.suzeorman.com/2009actionplan/expensesheet/index.html

Use this survey to see the big picture of where your money is going. This is the best pre-formatted expense tool that I’ve seen. It covers a broader list of expense categories than most others, and gives you a view of how your expenses compare with national averages (using numbers from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics). Take the national averages and the side comments with a grain of salt. When I used this tool, I found some comments or suggestions that didn’t quite make sense to me. Keep in mind, this is an automated tool, so there may be some quirky kinks involved. You don’t need a disclaimer to tell you this, do you?

One thing that you may notice, at the end of this exercise, is that your estimate of where your money goes does not equate to the amount of money that comes in. This is a good thing for you to know. It means you are not fully aware of how you’re handling your money. But you can figure out for yourself how to fix this problem. There are plenty of resources for tracking your spending. The key is finding or creating a system that’s best for you. The one that works best is the one that you use.

If you don’t know where to start, try an internet search for various phrases such as expense sheet, track spending, or the like. I’ll also include this link to Wise Bread’s post from early 2009, which lists the Top 100+ Personal Finance Blogs.

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