Put simply, what you start to measure or track will grow. This is a great rule for all aspects of life, but especially if we want to save and invest more money – we have to track where it all goes.

The year is 2016 – I was a young E4 in the Air Force. I wanted to save $25,000 by the end of the year, but like many other young airmen, I had no idea how to do this. I knew that ‘saving money’ would get me to that goalpost, but I didn’t have any formal experience or understanding of how to save that kind of money.

So in January 2016, I bought a red notebook from a craft store in Hawaii and decided to manually write out how much I earned, how much I wanted to save and what my projected savings would look like if I could stay disciplined towards that goal of saving $25,000.

To outline my financial situation at the time, I had just moved out of the Navy Dormatory – and was allotted a Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) of $2190.00. Given the cost of housing in my duty location of Hawaii, I wanted to optimize this expense as much as I could. How would I optimize this situation? By having a roommate.

Most young 20 year olds shy away from having roommates, as this is their first time experiencing independence and as a result, they end up spending the majority of their Housing allowance on a single apartment or condo. Recognizing this, I made the conscious decision to move in with one of my coworkers. We drafted up a simple agreement where we would split the rent, 60/40 (where they would pay about $1200 a month and I would spend $900 a month).

With that agreement, I was able to automatically save $1290 of my $2190 allowance. So I wrote that into my journal as a minimum saving amount (not accounting for any additional savings yet). $1290 x 12 months would net me $15,480 of extra savings by the end of the year. This was my first significant finance goal that I ever achieved!

This method can be applied to any aspect of life: Want to lose weight? Start tracking how many calories you eat, in a tool like MyFitnessPal or in a simple paper notebook. Want to save for an upcoming wedding? Start tracking all your spending month to month. Want to grow a blog? Start recording how many readers you have per week or how many posts you write per month. Just. Start. Tracking. These metrics set the basis or foundation of growth. Without your metrics, it’s very difficult to identify growth or areas of improvement.

You have to be the one in your own life that tracks your progress. No one else will be as motivated to help you succeed, because at the end of the day, you have to be the one that does the work. Let me know some ways that you’ve tried to succeed in your academic, financial or military career in the comments below!

-Michael, with Military.cash

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