Lesson 1: Get started
GreenBooks is the simplest method we know of to take control of your money.
Many of us have money issues, some of us are not aware until it’s too late to make a change. Do you identify with any of the following?
- Always living paycheck-to-paycheck
- Not able to get out of debt
- Unable to build up your savings
- Constantly worried about money
If you identify with these issues, you need to have a method to take control of your money. And GreenBooks is that method.
The GreenBooks Method
The GreenBooks Method is an easy and effective solution that has three simple steps.
- Enter Transactions
- Gain Insight
- Make a Budget
In Step 1, you begin to enter transactions into GreenBooks everyday. The key is to assign each transaction a category, such as Food, Gas, Rent. By categorizing transactions, you will be able to gain insight about your spending.
In Step 2, you use GreenBooks’ two simple charts: Breakdown and Trends, to instantly gain complete insight into your financial health and spending habit. By having this knowledge, you naturally start to modify your spending behavior.
GreenBooks is simpler than other budgeting apps because Step 3: Make a Budget, is actually not required. If you have good cashflow and enough fund in your accounts, you can stop at Step 2 and just monitor your spending everyday. However, if you do need to keep a tighter rein on your money, GreenBooks helps you create an effective budget very easily. Making a budget is Step 3 of the GreenBooks Method.
Let’s put this into practice
To implement step one (enter transactions), you first need to add your accounts into GreenBooks. Watch this video to see how to add your accounts and enter transactions into GreenBooks. The video demonstrates the Mac app, but on the iPhone app the process is similar.
Now that you’ve watched this video, go download GreenBooks and add your accounts.
After your accounts are added, for the next few days, simply enter transactions each day into GreenBooks.
☝️ Summary
To summarize, here is what we accomplished today.
- Setup your account
- Enter transactions daily
Do this for a day or two. After you have entered a few transactions, go to Lesson 2 where we will do a deep dive into step 2 of the GreenBooks Method: the Breakdown chart.
