A quote often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte is “A leader is a dealer in hope.”
My understanding of this quote is that in a battle, the commanding officers need to provide hope for their soldiers that there is a way forward. If the soldiers believe that their cause is lost, it’s much easier to give up. If they see a way to success, they will want to take that path.
Working with our finances can seem like a battle, and we similarly need hope there.
There are a couple of ways that a tool such as hledger can provide hope. One is that by carefully tracking your finances, you will have a truer picture of your economic situation. While this might be a scary thought (my situation is awful, so why do I want to see it more clearly?), if there is a way forward, it’s going to be changing the reality of your situation. And it’s going to be easier to change the reality of your situation if you have a grasp on what that reality is.
The second way is that hledger can measure progress. You can measure a decrease in debt, and an increase in savings. You can even see your income increasing and your expenses decreasing. And seeing such progress gives hope for the future.
Of course, you want to have hope in more areas of your life than just finances, but it’s good to get genuine hope wherever you can find it.