track your numbers | 365daysofmarriage

This weekend, Bret and I spent some time figuring out our numbers in our real estate investing business. I do a lot of reporting and tracking so we can get a good idea of how things are working and our success rates. But those numbers haven’t told us everything. So we decided to see our ROI on different lead generating sources. It was really eye opening to see – wow, THIS lead generating source takes more time, but the ROI is UNREAL! Or, oh, I thought this source was really great, but it’s actually not.

It reminded me of a big success secret – know your numbers. I think it’s important for your goals whether you’re talking about your business or your budget. You can’t get by with what you think your budget is. You need to sit down and be really honest with yourself and your spending. One method we use to track our actual spending is Mint. It’s synced with all of our accounts and tracks all of our spending. You can think you spend about $200 a month on gas, but you actually spend $250. Knowing the true numbers is so important.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t easy, especially if you’re figuring this out with your spouse. Actually seeing on the screen how much you spent on Dunkin…or Krispy Kreme…can be a tough conversation. But once you get past that, it’s so so so good.

So what about you? How do you track your numbers? Have you taken the time to learn what they are? Let me know in the comments below.