Robert Brokamp

But in our manifesto, we did list out our goals, which were a house, starting a family, college, retirement, et cetera.

And we're on track to meet those.

So I think that's good news.

Another part of the manifesto that I think helped is that we said we'd do an equivalency calculation, figuring out how many hours we had to work to make a purchase.

And I think that helps keep spending in context.

And then finally, I like the visual part a lot.

We actually had the manifesto posted on the fridge for a while and I had an abridged version in my wallet.

So I had to see it every time that I was inclined to spend some money.

All right, let's move on to the second component of our manifesto, which was follow the breadcrumbs.

In other words, track inflow and outflow.

And this just comes down to having a system for seeing where your money is going.

And we've been talking about this on the show with the 2026 Financial Planning Challenge, including last week's episode.

So check that out if you haven't.

I'd give us a B on this one, but sometimes maybe a C because we've kind of ebbed and flowed with this.

We started out with spreadsheets, then went to Quicken, then to Mint, then to Empower, and now we're back to Quicken.

So we're sometimes better at staying on top of this than others, but every time we dig into our spending, I think it's pretty eye-opening.

And another component of our manifesto was that we check into this weekly.

I personally haven't been able to stick to this of late, so that's room for improvement on my part.

Yeah, and having three young drivers on our auto insurance, my goodness gracious, what a bill that has been.

All right, let's move on to the third component.