Managing Money is the second of the top two New Year resolutions. (Via Swaroop’s TrackEveryCoin) The top one is, of course, losing weight. The fact that we need those resolutions every New Year, makes it obvious that we don’t keep those resolutions for long!

The reason we are not good with managing our money is not hard to find. Fear of numbers, information overload in the media, financial jargons and the complexity of financial products adds to our inertia.

But the biggest reason, to my mind, why people do not manage their money is that they don’t know anything about their money. How it is coming, where it is going, whether it is lying idle, etc.

That brings me to the RupeeManager software that we are building.

The three guiding principles that have helped conceptualize the software are
1. Measure: (Know Yourself)
2. Manage: (Know how your money is doing)
3. Make Your Rupee Work: (And not just You working for Money!)

1. Measure: It is common knowledge that whenever you need to manage something, you need to measure it first. We have a vague idea about our money.

Like, have you figured out your risk profile/appetite?

The idea is that, if we had a way to measure income, expenses, portfolio, risk profile, etc, we could have a discussion on how to improve them. No records, no improvements.

The RupeeManager is primarily aimed at helping you measure your rupee. Once you are aware, other things follow.

2. Manage: Now that you have numbers ready, the improvements follow naturally. For example, you see that your percentage spend on “eating out” is 2-3 times the monthly grocery bill or it forms 25+% of your expenses.

Also, you will get an idea how to balance your portfolio according to your risk profile. You will match the portfolio with your risk appetite and see if you can take more risk or go more conservative. In other words, you get to decide your asset allocation strategy.

3. Make your Money Work: Other than tracking your earnings and your expenses, it is important to see if your money is working for your future.

We have a feature where you can allocate your income among fixed expenses, discretionary expenses, short term savings and long term investments. It’s like assigning goals for your money.

I have my fingers crossed on the response we’ll get on the software. Would you like to participate in the private beat of the software? Let me know. Thanks

तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमयः|; Sharing is Caring!The purpose of this blog is to improve the way Indians manage their money and improve their knowledge about personal finance. We are living in a world which is increasingly becoming smaller and information is being shared at lighting fast pace.

However it still remains a mystery as how less we know about personal finance. The only solution is to share whatever useful stuff you find.

Some readers have come back to me saying that I should facilitate easy sharing of my content. So go ahead share it with your friends and family

Welcome back! Join me on this journey to improving our financial IQ and sharing what we know. Updates at RSS feed or Email. And spread the word please Thank You!

Coming Soon! A Personal Finance Workshop & Software "RupeeManager". Stay tuned

Recommended posts

• March 9, 2009 -- Telling v/s Showing (3)
• March 8, 2009 -- Personal Finance Tracker (4)
• September 12, 2009 -- Coming Soon! Rupee Manager Workshops Near You (3)
• August 27, 2009 -- Introducing India’s Online Insurance Community (3)
• August 4, 2009 -- Three Principles of Personal Finance Management (2)

• Previous Entry: Introducing India’s Online Insurance Community
• Next Entry: Thank You, You Are Invited!