Marc Fenz, founder
The manifesto
I’ve been tracking my money for over 15 years. Not perfectly. Automated orders sometimes get entered three weeks late, and a few transactions slip through entirely. I correct what I can and move on. The data has never been complete. It has always been enough.
I don’t budget. Deciding in advance what I’m allowed to spend and then policing myself against it? I’ve never done that, and I hate the idea. I track. I record what actually happens and look at it. Guilt was never part of it. I simply like knowing where the money goes.
How long can I afford to live life on my terms?
Expenses only show what leaves. This question needed the whole position: cash, investments, debts. So I started writing down my net worth once a month.
The number itself matters less than the question it lets me ask. “Can I afford this?” stopped being interesting. What I ask now: is this moving me closer to freedom, or away from it?
Recently the answer was no. I was renting a second apartment. My net worth was still growing, but slower than it should have. So I gave the apartment up. I could afford it. I could also see, in numbers, that it was quietly shrinking the thing I actually care about: my options.
Optionality is the whole point. It means I can take a year off, can walk away from a client. Most of the doors I keep open I never walk through. Knowing they’re open changes how I stand in the room.
What I don’t know is whether the tracking caused any of this or just watched it happen. Fifteen years, one person, no control group. I’ve never found a way to test it.
I still do. That’s all it is.