The First Spreadsheet of the Day

The Money Minute.

Hi BoTs,

I read Alexa von Tobel’s book Financially Forward about four years ago - while the entire book was interesting, one practice in it stood out for me and I’ve made it part of my life ever since.

The author calls it the “Money Minute”: one minute every morning to check on your financial accounts.

So for the past four years, I have checked all my accounts daily. This includes the usual ones, like savings and checking accounts or stock accounts, as well as less frequently changing accounts, such as my bitcoin and 401k. Each day, I log everything in the simplest spreadsheet imaginable.

It looks something like this (I hid a few rows for privacy but this is basically it):

Then, the Minus 2025 Expenses row links to another spreadsheet where I list all my fixed costs (items that never change, like house costs) as well as a daily allowance that I try not to go over, all totaled up.

It’s super easy to set up and track, it keeps my money anxiety down because I always know how much I have, and it’s my most-visited spreadsheet. I just keep it open in a tab at all times.

If you want a Money Minute of your own, just start a Google sheet, write down the accounts you visit most frequently, and start tracking. It can grow in its complexity over time as you need it - I didn’t add my Fixed Costs tab and my daily allowance row until a few months in.

-Molly Beck