My eldest son is not particularly good with money.Don’t misunderstand, he’s not in debt or anything, but considering what he earns for his age, he ought to have saved more.

I don’t suppose I should have been surprised though because it’s not his fault  -it’s mine.

You see, when he was younger, if ever he came with me when I went shopping, I always paid by credit card.It was so much easier to just hand over a bit of plastic than mess around with notes and change, especially as my youngest son has autism and was, shall we say, “difficult”!

Anyway, as a result he rarely actually saw physical money so it’s hard for him to visualise how easily it disappears. Now, as he earns his own money, he tends to do the same thing, i.e. pay with plastic.

When we checked his bank statement the other day to see just what he was spending his salary on, we discovered it wasn’t the big things that ate up his income, but the small, seemingly insignificant items.

We decided, therefore, he should make a list of what he spends every day.  That way he’d see where his money was going and be able to make some changes. With the  prospect of recession looming, it seemed a wise move, and in any event, being able to control your finances is a sensible thing to master.

It occurred to me my son’s relationship with money is the same as my relationship to time.  I waste it, especially in my internet business.  I seem to spend all day working, but achieving little in return, and maybe I too should write a list.

Actually, that’s just what my mentor Alex Jeffreys has suggested.  Infact, he recommends writing two!

The first is a To Do List and the second is a Did List.  The benefits of completing both are obvious and so beneficial.

On the To Do List you need to write your tasks for the day with the most important at the top.  Keep the list fairly short though,   between 6 and 10 items otherwise it gets a bit overwhelming.You can even allocate a certain amount of time to each one so you know what you should have achieved within a specific time frame, whether that is an hour, a morning, an afternoon or a whole day.

On the Did List you obviously write what you actually did and the amount of time you spent doing it.The results can be quite revealing and certainly a  good starting point to decide what you need to cut out and where you need to really focus.

I was amazed how “busy” I was doing “nothing” - at least nothing that was moving me towards my goals.I need to remain focused, so from now on I shall concentrate on my To Do list.The trouble is, I’m menopausal and concentration at the moment isn’t my strong point, so the first entry on my Did List is likely to be -  ”Spent 10 minutes searching for my To Do List”.

Oh well, the idea is there and if we both master it, my son and I should soon be money and time rich.  That will be a first!

Jean

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