PocketSmith Newbie Suresh Is Enjoying His New Clarity Over His Finances

Read how Suresh is getting as much understanding of his personal finances as he does with his business finances using PocketSmith.

Tell us a little about yourself?

I’m Dr Suresh Sivacolundhu, 53 years old, husband of 24 years to Katie, dad to Alana (19), Lauren (17), James (12), dogs Sophie and Millie, and cats Bean, Tigger, and Felix.

I’ve been a podiatrist and CEO of The Foot Clinic in Cottesloe, WA for the past 24 years. My passion is to stay fit, fast and strong and move well forever! I’m into running, HIIT, Body Attack, strength training, hockey, and tennis.

How would you describe your role in your household?

Firstly, I’m the fun guy! Life is way too short to take too many things too seriously. I bring a ridiculously annoying positive attitude to my family and my home.

I fix things — I’m the handyman and maintenance guy, and I’m also the gardener with a very big and very overgrown vegetable garden.

What drew you to PocketSmith?

At work, we have brilliant visibility over our numbers. At home, we didn’t.

Katie and I both work full-time, and the only numbers we ever looked at were how much money was in the bank and whether it was enough to feed the ever-hungrier credit card. We use Xero at work, but I figured that was too OTT for home, so I googled and found PocketSmith!

How long have you been with us?

I’m very new to PocketSmith, having only signed up in May of this year, so just over six months.

What do you primarily use PocketSmith for?

Getting clear visibility over our household budget, the main expense areas being groceries, transport, entertainment, pets, personal spending, investments, and medical expenses.

I’m a bit of an Excel geek, so transfer monthly reports to a color-coded spreadsheet so I can see everything at a glance.

How has PocketSmith changed the way you do money?

I love our new visibility! 

• I can see exactly what goes in and out, and when.
• I can see the good months, and the lean months, and why that is.
• I can prepare for what’s to come and discuss changes to our spending habits with numbers to support the decisions Katie and I can make together.

What are your favorite features?

I love the seamless integration with multiple banks and accounts. The reporting is also clear and simple — with a single click on the Income and Expense Statement, I can drill into more detail to understand exactly what we spent our hard-earned dollars on.

What’s the best money decision you made in the past 12 months?

Definitely to put everything we earned into paying off our home loan, which after 24 years of various home loans, we have finally done!

A close second would have to be subscribing to PocketSmith. I know that sounds a bit contrived because I’m doing this Q&A as a service to the PocketSmith community, but as a successful business owner of 24 years, and the business surviving a global pandemic, we could not have done it so well without a clear understanding of our numbers. PocketSmith has allowed us to do this for the thing that is most important in my life – my family.

What is crazy is that we had not done this for our household earlier. I now enjoy categorizing all uncategorized items once every 1-2 weeks and looking more closely at everything every month. This has given Katie and me real comfort in knowing we are headed in the right direction, and when we are not, we can make educated decisions and take action quickly.