Its National Education Week and kids and families all across America are celebrating learning. And after leaving my kid’s school I realized kids still really only like 3 components of school: lunch, recess and the “end of day” bell. So how does one motivate one’s self to be more interested in education?….Expose the end results in a manner in which one can relate. As in the case of financial literacy…being able to pay bills is not enough motivation for most people to make timely payments, but avoiding collection efforts, late fees and off course, increasing one’s ability to continue spending money, can be a motivation. However, before one gets to the good part of money…acquiring needs and wants, one must first demostrate an interest in path of their money. Money comes in and money goes out of one’s possession. The most important aspect in getting a handle on finances is understanding where the money is going first…and not just 90% of income, but all of it. Make yourself accountable to your wallet and add all expenditures to help illustrate your spending patterns. To aid in this efffort, start collecting all receipts…yes, that includes the .50 cent toll road receipts. Write out a list of ALL cash expenditures during any entire pay period. Once you have a couple of pay period expenditures recorded, then comes the main question….Can some of those purchases be subsituted for other things such as investments, savings, insurance, vacations and/or retiring long term debt? This is only the first step to personal finance, but often the most difficult and misunderstood part of developing a financial plan.