By now, you've created a list of your assets and liabilities — a net-worth statement — and you set up money baskets to help track and manage monthly expenses. The next step toward achieving your financial goals is establishing a balance between work and life, spending and saving, keeping up appearances and building targeted savings.

Being Rich Versus Appearing Rich

It's been said that many people keep themselves poor trying to appear rich. Nothing could be more true. So many people have gone into debt trying to appear as successful as their peers or their neighbors that it has become a vicious cycle. Your neighbor or colleague is trying to appear better off than you; you spend to appear as well off as, or better off than, them. And on and on, until both of you are so deep in debt that the only winners are the credit card companies charging you interest. Few people are able to resist the temptation to appear wealthier than they are. The credit card companies are happy to help out with easy credit and growing credit lines.

Making Choices

One of the best ways to manage the want-versus-need debate is to develop clear goals — and write them down. Post-It notes or notes on your computer desktop are ways to keep your goals in the forefront of your mind. Day-to-day life is busy, and people make decisions based on what they want now; tomorrow seems so far away and convenience takes precedence over planning. Having your goals written and displayed where you'll see them often will help you stay on track.

People establish spending patterns that eventually seem unchangeable. These habits are often a source of contention between partners. Identifying these unproductive behaviors isn't always easy, and changing them often involves dramatic lifestyle changes. But don't let this keep you from examining your financial life. Remember, these are the ways that you might be sabotaging yourself. Depending on what you're doing, these unfocused habits might be the only thing keeping you from really getting in control of your money.

Your Money Journal

The best way to identify how you feel and behave around money is to keep a money journal. This doesn't have to be an elaborate “dear diary” nightly exercise. Your journal can be as structured or unstructured, detailed or casual as you want. Many people find it easier to avoid trying to write in paragraphs and start with lists and random thoughts or fragments of sentences.

Your journal can be very specific or abstract. Start by writing down thoughts about your money and your goals. Think about how your goals relate to your day's saving or spending. Your journal can list your purchases and the purchases you thought about making or might once have made, but bypassed because you decided that you placed a higher priority on another use of your money. List budget-extending purchases such as items you bought on sale or lower-cost versions of more expensive name-brand items. If you splurged on a purchase, record it and acknowledge that you treated yourself. Be sure to record your thoughts about buying that luxury, and maybe revisit that purchase later and record whether your enjoyment of the item or experience was, in hindsight, worth its cost. If so, congratulations! If not, that reflection will guide your future spending and help you prioritize.

Once you've kept your journal for a few entries, you can go back and look for patterns or themes in what you've communicated. Jot down thoughts about what you think the journal shows. Look at the way you interact with your money — are you more of a saver or a spender?