The First Behavior of Budgeting: Observe Your Money
When I hear people throw out the word “budget,” I often wonder if we’re talking past each other.
What exactly does budgeting mean?
If we don’t really know what we mean by “budgeting,” we can’t communicate about it, let alone do it.
I see budgeting as three behaviors layered on top of each other. That’s why I created the Observe-Track-Direct framework to define what I mean by “budgeting.”
Instead of trying to master budgeting all at once, this approach grows three skills one at a time:
Observe
Track
Direct
Together, these behaviors form a complete approach to budgeting.
Before you can control your money, you have to get comfortable simply looking at it.
That’s why this is the first component of budgeting: observe.