Gaining Insight
“We are only as blind as we want to be.” - Maya Angelou
I think this quote so beautifully captures what we’re trying to get at with this part of the challenge. With the Insights sheet you are given sight. You are no longer blind as to where your money is going. The hard work you did looking at, thinking about, and categorizing each transaction in segment two pays off here.
Insights you gain here are fundamental in helping you understand and shift your habits, and ultimately achieve your goals. You can use these as sign posts that will point you in the right direction.
Example Insights
To help you uncover your own insights here are some anecdotal examples.
All 9 of my top 10 expense categories are in line with my values.
It seems like I’m not putting enough money away for the future to realistically achieve my goals.
I’m curious about the amount of spending in the bills group, this might be an area I explore more.
I tend to shop at the same grocery store.
I’m spending a lot of money at the laundromat. I wonder how much I could save by investing in a washer and dryer.
Bonus
If you want to dive even further into your spending for a certain category, consider turning on the filter in the Transactions sheet and filtering your transactions by the Category column for a certain category.
Read more about how to use the filter on our help center here.
Setting actionable goals
The insights are great, but they only open your eyes. Without action, nothing changes.
- What are 3-4 simple actionable goals that will help you change your spending to be better in line with your values?
- Are there categories where you want to spend less?
- Spend more?
- Which categories best align with your values?
- Which are at odds with your values?
Not sure what your values are? A friend of Tiller Money, Carl Richards, explains more on how values are important for your financial journey on the New York Times website here.
Examples of actionable goals you might set:
Utilities - call Verizon to move to a less expensive cell phone plan
Mortgage - call my bank to explore refinancing at lower rates
Subscriptions - cancel the streaming music plan we’re not using, consolidate to one streaming video subscription, add a subscription to the Atlantic for weekend reading
Groceries - schedule the monthly run to buy in bulk, treat ourselves to a bar of Theo dark chocolate to celebrate the end of the week each Friday night, cut back on ice cream, skip wine on alternating weeks, make a big batch of chili and freeze for lunches
Your turn to share!
What simple, actionable goal do you think you can achieve in the next 12 days? Share with the community below. Feel free to share enlightening insights you discovered as well!
Resources & Support
Resources
Here are a few guides you may find useful as you work through the checklist for this segment:
- Using the Insights sheet
- Filtering and sorting data in Google Sheets
- What to do if you have trouble refreshing an account
- What to do if you’re missing transactions
- A guide on refreshing and updating in Tiller Money Feeds sheets
Getting support
If you need help with completing any of the checklist items, including addressing account connection issues and errors, please reach out to our support team via the chat tool in the lower right corner of the Console at https://sheets.tillerhq.com/auth/google for the fastest response. The topics here are intended to be motivational, not for troubleshooting and the team via Chat can help you faster and more effectively than anyone here in the community.