The No. 1 move to improve your finances in 5 minutes, according to CFPs

If you want to make an improvement to your life, there’s always going to be someone hoping to sell you a quick fix. Getting back in shape? Try 6 Second Abs. Looking to be more effective at work? Pick up a copy of “The One-Minute Manager.” Of course, establishing good long-term habits is rarely so simple. And when it comes to sorting out your finances — which encompass a slew of moving parts and competing goals — you’ll typically have to put in time on a regular basis, if you don’t pay someone to do it for you. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t small, concrete steps you can take toward a better financial future that only require a few minutes. We asked financial planners the top piece of advice they’d give to clients who had only five minutes to meaningfully improve their finances. Their answers varied, but one piece of advice kept cropping up again and again: Find out where your money is going. “My five-minute tip is to sign up for a budget app and link your bank and credit card accounts, or whatever you use for spending,” says Kevin Coombs, a certified financial planner in Atlanta, Georgia. “This shouldn’t take too long to do, and the data that starts coming in will be invaluable.”

Why it pays to track your spending

To financial pros, getting financially healthy is similar to getting physically healthy. A doctor wouldn’t attempt to help you improve your diet or exercise habits without knowing what you’re currently doing. Getting to know your spending habits is like checking your financial vitals. It’s difficult to tackle major money goals such as saving for retirement or paying down debt without knowing the basics of your budget and your net worth, says Tracy Sherwood, a CFP in Clarence, New York. “Start to track both numbers and you’ll have a baseline to use when you’re making future financial decisions,” she says. To that end, you’ll have to spend some time — more than just the initial five minutes — regularly reviewing your monthly spending. If you do sign up for budget software, make sure your linked expenses are being successfully logged and are falling into the proper categories. This exercise will help you not only keep tabs on your major expenses, but also the small ones that may otherwise seem to evaporate out of your account without you noticing. Such charges “appear small and insignificant, at least when viewed individually,” says James Guarino, a CFP in Woburn, Massachusetts. “In reality, they add up over the course of a year — or years — and can prove to be quite consequential to [your] overall financial well-being.” Once you have a better understanding of your spending on a granular level, you can start asking yourself bigger picture questions about where your money is going, says Coombs. “Was spending higher or lower than the previous month? Why? What do you anticipate for the upcoming month?” he says. “Identify the causes of higher-expense months and consider if there are ways to prevent those from reoccurring.” You may also find that certain categories, such as unused subscriptions or dining out, are eating up more of your paycheck than you previously thought. These are easy places to think about trimming when you build a budget that allows you to live within your means while dedicating money to your bigger financial goals.