Monthly Expenses, Win Everyday, New Biz

I've started more aggressively tracking my monthly expenses starting this January. I utilized the help of a cork board and dry erase board to do this. Every time I incur an expense, I write it down on the dry erase board and post the receipt.

I also keep an Excel file full of my expenses and tax deductions, but the cork board is always there to stare me in the face for what I spend. For January I incurred roughly the following expenses:

I know people who pay higher monthly rents than my entire monthly expenses. These are bound to go up, especially in the investment category. Luckily, many of my investment dollars are tax deductible.

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I was speaking to a mentor of mine about being more productive, and he passed down a simple phrase that was passed down to him:

For some reason, that phrase really stuck with me. He explained that, "Everyday should be a small victory."

This means writing out all of your tasks the night before, then executing them all before you sleep the next day. If you finish everything and then some, you have won.

I used to plan out my day by hour, but it NEVER worked. I realized that everyday is different, and unexpected things always pop up, so an hourly schedule is not the best. My days are more planned out now using Microsoft Outlook Calendar and plain old sticky notes.

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I had set a goal of 1-31-2006 to launch another new small business of mine. I've postponed that launch date for 5 more days. It should be done by then!