Where did my first salary go?

By Recofolio

The first salary month is the best one to look at closely, because everything is new and nothing is habit yet. The rent has just been agreed, the commute has just been chosen, the first transfer home has just been made. A month from now these will feel fixed. Right now they are still decisions, and the statement shows each one as a line.

Open the statement and read the lines in order, from the day the salary arrived to the end of the period. Don't skip the small ones. Most people find the lines fall into five or six groups: rent and bills, food, getting around, money sent to family, the things you bought, and the small recurring charges you'd forgotten you agreed to. A subscription you took for a free trial, a delivery fee that repeats, a card's annual charge.

Ten statement lines on the left, in the bank's words, with their amounts. A hairline runs from each line to one of six groups on the right: two lines to rent and bills, three to food, two to getting around, one to sent to family, one to things you bought, one to recurring charges. Each group shows its total as a bar.

Write the groups down with their totals. Don't judge them. The point of the first month is to see, not to fix. A budget written before you have seen a month is a guess; a budget written after is a description. A month later, do it again. The difference between the two months is where your decisions live: a group that grew, a group that shrank, a charge that appeared without you noticing.

Two things make the exercise honest. Use the statement, not your memory and not the app's running total, because the statement is the complete list and the app is a moving one. And do it the day the statement arrives, while the month is fresh enough that every line still means something to you. A line read long after is just a name and a number.

Recofolio does the reading and the grouping from the statement itself, so the habit should take less than an hour a month. Whether you use it or a notebook, the statement is where the true numbers are. How often should you check? Once a month, when the statement comes, is enough; the point is to see the whole month at once, not to watch every day.

Try it free

Convert one of these statements to a spreadsheet; the file stays on your device.