Example of collecting data!

I am going to use events in my life for examples in how to properly collect, organize, categorize, manage, and interpret data. Based upon my results, I will construct a model that I may use to predict future events.

Microsoft Excel will be my software of choice for actually managing my data and constructing models. What's nice about excel is not only its easy to use functions but the ability to manipulate individual cells and neatly organize data. After all data has been collected I can then build models in the form of graphs, charts, and functions that may be used to (hopefully) predict some future results with fair accuracy.

I will begin collecting data on my finances. Information used will be categories such as "income", "expenses", "assets", and "liabilities".

Under the "assets" we want to list our cash on hand (how much cash you have on your person, in your home, etc). Followed by "deposits" which will be used to define how much cash we have in the bank.

We will want to list our other less liquid assets such as "cars", "home", "tools", etc. These go after or below more liquid assets like cash.

Next we list our income: how much, from where, how often, etc. Income is classified as an asset so income ultimately will be listed under the "assets" heading.

After we list our assets we may list our "liabilities", beginning with small expenses like "rent", "phone bill", "fuel", "electric", "food", etc.

After we list our smaller expenses we can list our larger liabilities such as "student loans", "mortgage", etc.

We will want to list the frequency of each event as it happens, and it's monthly affect on our calculated net-worth. In accounting rules, assets always equal liabilities, but in this case because we are dealing with individuals not companies, we may have more assets than liabilities, or if we are in a less-than hopeful position in life, our liabilities will be greater than our assets... let's hope it doesn't come to that!

Now after we set all this up in our Excel spreadsheet, we can color coordinate it and have some fun with creating tables, fonts, etc.

We will want to create pie-charts that can be used to describe our current situation at any given time, and also a linear-graph to chart our situation over time.

Along with this, let's create a table that lists everyday of the current month. We will use this table to describe in one word whether or not are happy. We can say "happy" or "sad". This will be tied into our charts and will become our "x-axis".

Or, we can do another topic. Anything really. This is just to give an idea of what is possible.

We can also do this with a pencil and paper, though a bit more math is required.

For example. We can create a simple Cartesian coordinate system, with wealth as the Y-axis and happiness as the X-axis. For our table of happiness, "happy" may be n=1, where it is attributed one point along the X-axis, and "sad" n=-1. -1 Must be used because sad is the opposite of happy, and unless we include a third descriptor such as "content", our level will line will drop.