I consciously ensure that I work out regularly and stay active each day; however, I spend a substantial part of my weekdays sitting in a desk chair. The only time I move other parts of my body is when I’m going to shower, or to the watercooler. Then, for the rest of the time, it is only my fingers that move against my PC keyboard.

Initially, I did not worry about this until few days ago. At first, I thought that taking a stroll during lunch breaks and keeping up with my morning gym sessions would compensate for the period of time I spent sitting on the desk. However, my whole thought changed when I stumbled on a critical publication on American Journal of Epidemiology. The publication was on a study that reveals the close link between sitting down for long hours and increased risk of death.

The conclusion of the study was what scared me – there’s little or no difference, whether you exercise or not …scary, isn’t it? The results of the study show that those sitting times daily exceeds six hours are at high risk of dying (as at when this study was conducted) when compared with men and women who do not exceed 3-hours sitting down. You may think no one can actually sit as long as six hours – when you consider that majority of Americans are engaged in desk jobs (from 9am – 4pm at least).

You would realize that it is possible to sit for that long. Besides, they spend their days-off sitting back at home. It really got me thinking about our sedentary mode of life and the impact it has on us. This is how I went digging until these critical facts came staring at me.

credit to: Sura Nualpradid

What’s your daily spending rate? Consider all those areas that money slips into almost unnoticed – at Starbucks (the $5 latte), your favorite soup and sandwich combo lunch that cost almost $12, your annual $1,500 vacation, which costs approximately $5 each day. If your annual income is not up to $90,000; when you sum all your daily expenses, excluding heavy expenditures on items like cars, housing and household bills, it is possible that you spend nearly $60 daily on the average. These statistics are a result of a recent research conducted by a renowned research institute.

Don’t feel bad if you can’t pinpoint where your money slips away to; you are not alone. It is not easy to keep count of each dime. However, there are some who do, and some of them do it for the motivational purpose while others do it just for fun. There’s a growing rate of personal finance blogs as well as an economic spotlight regarding saving and spending, which has also brought a good number of financial diaries to light.

Here’s an instance;
College students at a particular university kept a record of their weekly spending in a spending diary once a week. One student from that college details how she keeps the record. According to one particular student, she used moleskin notebook to pen down every expenditure and have all the figures moved to a spreadsheet every Sunday.

On the other hand, one blogger student frequently posts monthly spending recaps listing regarding his expenses on gifts, dining, housing, travel, entertainment, clothing and others. This kind of expenses amounted to an average of $42 daily; housing and utilities are not included. This figure is 29 percent lower when compared with an average American. In a similar manner, another blogger wrote on how she embarks on her spending tracking method, especially her vacation expenses, which have a strong lure to hand over the cash.

Do you want to know how you can compare with the average American when it comes to everyday spending? Here are tips to help you find out what your daily spending is;

• After 401K contributions and taxes, take your monthly income and do the next step

• Deduct any after-tax savings (funds sent to CDs, Roth IRA contributions, etc.) set apart.

• Deduct your car payment, rent or mortgage

• The figure resulting is your monthly spending

• Use 30.5 days to divide the figure you got above (as your monthly spending); the value or figure resulting would give you your daily average spending.

This is how it goes, if you earn $3,500 in a month – out of which you spend $1,000 on rent, $200 kept away in an emergency savings account, another $200 spent on car payment. It means your monthly expenditure is $1,400 – remove this amount from your monthly pay, and you would be left with $2,100. Divide $2,100 by 30.5 days of the month, the result would give you a daily spending value – $68.

Knowing your daily spending is a great way to determine where to make necessary adjustments in your spending levels.

Credit: scottchan