Money Exposes Who You Are
People who lack discipline in their lives are often the same ones who struggle with their finances. Both demand heightened self-awareness — an understanding of who you are, why you are the way you are, and how you cope with it. This is the crux of self-improvement, and it applies equally to managing money.
If you struggle with personal finance, the very first step is simple: write down your expenses. It may sound trivial, but it forces you to notice your spending patterns. Once you list your top expenses, a clear trend emerges — you’ll likely find that a large chunk of your money goes toward things that neither align with your values nor improve your life.
I like to think of expenses as your “financial personality.” They reveal a great deal about who you are. I’m tired of hearing people say they run out of money by the last week of the month — sometimes even earlier. That only shows they have no real sense of how much is in their bank account or where it should be spent. Worse, it means they haven’t even planned for their own survival. This points to a deeper problem: a lack of discipline, no ability to look ahead, and no awareness of consequences.
If you look closely at such people’s personal lives, you’ll often find similar traits. The point of tracking expenses isn’t to turn miserly or obsessively categorize every rupee. The goal is to understand how you actually spend the money you claim to value so much. In the process, you discover your true priorities. If you’re content with them, fine. If not, this awareness becomes the starting point for change.
How you do one thing is how you do everything. Build discipline in one area, and it spills over into every other part of life.