Tools

Are you the type of person who likes to learn about what really matters to you and have a clear understanding of what your priorities are?
Do you want total control of the things that flow into and out of your life?
If so, have I got some cool tools for you!

If you really want understand your priorities then all you have to do is look at where you spend your money each month. If you decide that you are a person who desires to gain control of your finances, your first step is to measure your spending. A very simple goal is to spend your money on things that are important to you and cut-down spending on things that are not.

You will learn how to pay yourself first and will never have to go through the unsustainable budgeting process. After one month of tracking, you will see where your money is going.
It’s the first step to take total control of your financial life.
Managing your own money on your terms is a life long process. Utilizing the available
tools and experience from the FI community becomes easier and in some cases, automated.

For me, I’ve been using this method every month since 1998.
It’s now a game for me and an effective ritual every few days.
At the end of the month, I can literally see where I spent my life’s priorities and then
decide if an adjustment is needed.
Give it a try: download the sheets in the link below. Instructions are on the sheet.

Bachrow Expense Tracking Template v4
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Student loans, credit card balance and mortgages are a burden that we definitely can live without. Did you know that the interest on the loan amount is highest in the first few years? That’s right, hardly any principle is going to pay off the loan until just a few years before the loan is fully paid. Meanwhile the bank has made an incredible profit because you followed their advice and instructions by paying the amount they told you to, i.e. minimum payment.

What if you paid it off in, say half the time, what would you do with the extra money that you were paying to the bank in principle & interest? Imagine being free and clear of debt by just taking a few extra steps to control YOUR PROFIT and not the banks.
Don’t buy-in to the story that you get a tax write-off to save on taxes. Would you spend $1.00 to save tens cents in taxes? Would you SPEND $100 to save $10.00 in taxes? To put it in a different perspective, would you give $90.00 of interest payments to the bank so that you can save $10 lousy bucks a year on taxes. Of course not.

Download the debt payoff sheet and run the numbers yourself. Only you can decide if the paid out bank interest is worth a few extra bucks going to principle on a regular and consistent basis.
Debt-Pay-Off-v4
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This a very different retirement calculator that will require some thinking as well as basic information on your current finances. If you’ve done a good job tracking your expenses, cash flow, and net worth, then your ready for this tool. It’s based on the Monte Carlo simulator which is a powerful modeling tool to graph out your efforts from today and the how the effects of time will benefit your “Future Self”.
F.I.R.E. Calc

The Best Savings Calculator That Actually Works

If you’ve been surfing around my blog, you’ve come across the expense tracking sheet and the FIRE Calculator.  (Financial Independence Retire Early).   I’ve recently come across another fabulous calculator that will run models to provide you a line of sight to when you are going to hit a financial goal.    Here’s how easy and painless it is.  All you have to do is enter the following inputs:  (You’ll need a Google Account, to access the workbook).

You can find the original post and author here: https://www.keepthrifty.com/2017/01/30/introducing-retirement-freedom/ or you jump right to the Google workbook.

Here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17jDUnWwUz9rJyMUIv3W2QdP2J9MWMSsdL2AjuaZv3D0/copy?usp=sharing