On the summary sheet I have added a column "average monthly expenditure" to help me to see average monthly trends over the next few years. These could one day help me to make investing decisions possibly with regard to timings.

I need to track my cash flows for a while before drawing a conclusion about how I've progressed.

The most important adjustment I have had to make in order to purposefully move towards achieving my goals has been to change the way I do things. While setting my goals it clearly occurred to me that in order to achieve success I had to change some of my habits regarding finances. I had to make sure that I saved more each month and did not lose money unnecessarily.
 
One of my real estate goals is to buy a property in the next 12 months. To this end I have started saving for a down payment and this has necessitated that I live below my means in order to free as much money towards the savings as I can. I do not intend to reduce myself to poverty but I will eliminate certain luxuries, gradually, so that I can make progressive steps towards my goal.
 
Just to share with fellow students, when in the supermarket I now avoid impulse purchases and will strictly stick to my shopping list. The supermarket is one place where some destructive behaviours take place and there are certain areas which I now avoid. This can be agony but I have to keep telling myself to keep my eyes on my goal but sometimes I feel my strength failing me!

Prioritizing purchases and tracking cash flows is not easy to do if one has habitually been allowing oneself some deviations. High levels of self discipline are required. In my first full month of behavior change I've sometimes felt brutalized, by myself of course, and have suffered withdrawal symptoms (emotional ones) from luxuries. The symptoms range between mild and severe. Surprisingly when I look and see that amounts saved every week are gradually increasing, I congratulate myself even for the narrowest saving, knowing that it could have been another purchase but will now move me towards my goal.
 
Cheers for now.
 
Monica

For Part One of Monica's Post Please Visit:

What you Can Learn from a Zimbabwe Real Estate Investor

Published on September 10, 2009

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