By reviewing your expenditures for the last 12 months, you can get an honest picture of your true spending behavior - and then make any necessary changes.

Here's one thing many financially successful people share in common: They carefully, sometimes exhaustively, track their saving and spending. On the other hand, those mired in financial trouble often take the opposite tack - they pay little attention to what's incoming and outgoing, sometimes willfully ignoring negative information.

If you're resolving to undertake a New Year's financial tune-up, and you don't fit comfortably within the first category, it's time to make some changes.

The Value of Evaluating Your Data

In today's "Big Data" society, we can't help but leave fumes of data everywhere we go. The websites we visit, the credit cards we use - it all adds up to an enormous amount of information. So massive, in fact, that an MIT study once estimated the average American office worker creates a staggering 1.8 million megabytes of data each year.

All of that data is pure gold for marketers and corporations. It offers precious insights into our preferences and behaviors. There's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't tap the inherent value of your own financial data for your own benefit. By collecting and analyzing your financial information, you can identify and address patterns of problem spending, and create workable solutions to facilitate more saving.

How Do I Gather My Data?

Getting this information is simple. Just visit your bank's website and download all activity for the previous 12 months. Then review your spending and saving activity with a critical eye. Where and when did you spend too much? Are there commonalities between your spending splurges? Did you save consistently? Did you rack up unnecessary fees? If so, how can they be avoided?

Most major banks also have online tools you can use to take a deeper look at your spending habits. Many offer comprehensive money-management dashboards that allow you to track all your activity across every account. Graphs will show you exactly where your money is going, on a percentage basis.

The Spending Tracking Epiphany

For many people, tracking an entire year's worth of spending is an eye-opening experience - almost an epiphany of sorts. For example, you might estimate that you spend $500 each month on food, only to realize you spend more than double that amount. Or you may have no idea how much you're spending on gas or entertainment.

While most of us know exactly what we pay each month for major recurring expenses such as cars or mortgage payments, discretionary spending is typically far murkier. Many times, we simply have no idea what the real scope of our spending is. A thorough 12-month review is one of the best ways to find out.

The Takeaway

If you're aiming for a full financial tune-up, it's critical to have comprehensive and accurate information with which to work. By reviewing your expenditures for the last 12 months, you can get an honest picture of your true spending behavior - and then make any necessary changes.