Archive for the ‘Budget’ Category
Pratical Advice on Making Ends Meet
Posted by admin | Filed under Budget, Credit Cards, Found Money, Reduce Debt
Half of all Americans live on less than $48,000 a year. That total, which is the median income level, is derived form U.S. Census figures from 2006. There is a lot of advice out there on cutting back on spending. But if you fall into this category, which simple math tells me 1 of 2 who read this will, chances are that cutting back on “going out to dinner” advice will not do. Unless of course they mean McDonald’s or Subway.
If your situation is that have more money going out on a montly basis than coming in, what do you do?
There two things you could! Three if you count doing nothing.
Make More Money or Spend Less.
Make More Money
First figure out what your shortfall is each month. Let’s say you need an extra $500 a month to loosen the collar. Some obvious ideas are are overtime at work, a side job, a simple side business, sell what you no longer need on Ebay, etc.
Spend Less Money
It’s very hard cutting back on certain luxuries we have grown accustomed, but sometime it’s necessary if only temporarily. Look closely at what goes out a make hard decisions. Do you need a $40 monthly gym membership or maybe you can exercise outside for free. Now this may be sacrilegious to some but if you’re in deep, what about your cable bill? Do you really need it? How much are you paying in credit card interest rates, moving debt to lower interest cards will lower your monthly payments, if onyl temporarily.
These are just a few ideas to kick start your brainstorming session. Why don’t you shut off the computer and take a yellow pad, with your favorite writing pen ( Very important, this makes a differnce in coming up with ideas), go to a quite place that’s comfotable and think of different wayss ot make some extra money or spend less money. Write everytihng you can down. Don’t worry about how stupid it may seem or that this will take along time to implement. You just want to write at this stage.
Here are some questions to hep you start your personal brainstorming session.
- What are you passionate about?
- What skills do you possess? Think hard, everyone has skills that are needed by someone, just think!
- What needs are out there, where you live, that aren’t being filled?
- Who do you know that you can barter a service? ( Bartering services can be sold)
- Who do you know that can help you locate a part or full time job, or business? (A client of mine started his business by being available to helping out a customer he was caddying. Now he provides a unique service for clients driving there.)
You can probably save or make a few hundred extra each month without too much pain, you just have to think about it objectively, which isn’t always the easiest thing to do.
Personal Debt Relief Will Be Harder to Get Soon
Posted by admin | Filed under Budget, Credit Cards, Reduce Debt
Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you’ve heard about the Banking Crisis, “The Banking Bailout” or the “700 Billion Gambit”. What most people do not seem to realize, is that because banks are tightening up on their money, and their lending guidelines, whether it be home loans, auto loans, home equity loans, or yes, unsecured loans such as credit cards.
This is a huge problem to every American, whether or not you think you are directly affected or not. We can all probably put off selling or buying a house, selling or buying a car, but what if we already have credit card debt. The average American with at least 1 credit card owes more than $8000 in credit card debt.
Here are two scenarios that could get people in trouble.
- If you are credit card surfer, those that shift debt to low or no interest: those offers may dry up, causing minimum payments to go up.
- If you carry high debt to credit limit: debt limits lowered, means high debt ratio > lower FICO > higher interest rate.
In scenario number 1, you want to make sure you have a back-up plan. Do you have other banks offering you low interest rates now! Now might be a good time to shift, because they may not be available. What is your debt to credit limit per card? Ideally you want to have no more than 80% of your credit limit per card and the lower the better overall.
In scenario 2, it may pay (no pun intended) to get more credit now, so that if it your limits get cut back, then you are still below the magical 80% ratio of debt to credit limit.
With the Credit Crisis, you won’t find Credit Card companies with 0% interest and zero fees any more but here is one that is worth checking out.
Discover More offers 0% interest for 12 months, with a maximum Balance Transfer fee of $75.
Airlines Raising Miles Required for Free Tickets
Posted by admin | Filed under Budget, Features, Frequent Flier Miles, Travel
I, like most people own a couple of credit cards with frequent flier miles. Lately, in an effort to combat fuels costs, many of the airlines have stopped offering bonuses and making you pay more (in miles) for free tickets. The question is, does it make sense to pay annual fees and sometimes higher airfare prices just for miles. Personally, I have American Airlines Frequent Flier card, but just flew Delta to Cancun, Mexico, because I refused to pay for the luggage fee. I did use the AA miles card though 
Currently I have enough for a round trip domestic trip but just heard they started charging an online booking fee. Another question is, how easy is it to get a free ticket? Many people give up trying to get a free ticket, when they realize their eight choice in flights or destination isn’t available.
To give you an idea on how some airlines overbook flights, leaving little if any empty seats for frequent flier programs, I recently had to make an emergency trip to Ecuador. A friend who works for American Airlines out of Dallas, was kind enough to let me use a buddy pass for my wife and myself since a last minute ticket was a ridiculous price. We traveled down with no problems, but on the way back, I traveled sans wife on Sunday Martin Luther King weekend with a stopover in Miami before continuing to John F. Kennedy airport in New York City, my home airport. BTW, living in the the NYC area affords you the luxury of choosing from four different airports to choose from, if you can’t get a ticket to your favorite. Besides, JFK, there’s Laguardia, Newark, and MacArthur Airport in Islip, Long Island. Bear with me, I’m going somewhere with this.
So, I get to Guayaquil after a four hour ride over fog covered mountains hoping that maybe, just maybe, there’s one extra seat for me. Remember I’m flying with a “buddy pass” (class 3), that means “standby” after all American Airline employees (class 1) and there families (class 2) . Yes, I get on, and First Class to boot, YES!!
I arrived in Miami at around 2:30pm with a connection at 5:30pm. I quickly realize that on the standby list, I’m currently number 36, with about 12 empty seats on the plane. What about going to Laguardia, I asked? Booked also. After waiting until 7:30pm, with just 2 more flights left that night, which were also over-booked, I decide to rent a car and head over to my brother in law’s house in Boca Raton, one hour away. I’m advised that the first flight leaves at 6:50 am for New York, yeah, right!
After staying up late watching the New York Giants win a nail biter over the Packers and washing clothes, my bags are already in New York, there’s no way. I’m going on 3 hours sleep again. I sleep in until about 6 am and head out for the airport. I get nervous when I realize I’m number 12 on standby for the 8:50 flight. I get really nervous when I meet three gentlemen who all work for American and commute weekly to New York, airplane mechanics. Why am I nervous? Because, I quickly find out they don’t have to be at work until 10:30 that night, and here it is at 8:00am and already they are looking for seats.
But as an AA employee they have on major advantage, they all have access to AA’s computer, and know exactly how many seats are empty on what flights. One of them has a plan, they have a feeling this was going to happen, it’s seems the Monday Miami to New York route is NOT a good one to be flying standby if you can help it. He has his passport in hand, and tells me that Miami to Toronto flight is “wide open”. And I just happen to have my passport with me:)
So, I spent to door to door about 36 hours by way of Miami and Toronto but finally got home around 5 pm. Thankfully I was able to breeze through Customs and Immigration in Toronto and just make the flight. The INS officer was a New Yorker and Giants fan, and my usual 30 minute wait through immigration, lasted all of 5 minutes, a new world record for me. That’s what I get for having the most common of Hispanic names, the John Smith of Hispanos.
But what does this have to do with frequent flier miles? If employess, have to spend an extra $65 (taxes for stepping foot on Canadian soil) just to get to where they have to go, how much of a better position are frequent fliers? Not much in my opinion, but what are your thoughts? Do tell!
General Strategies on Setting up a Family Budget.
Posted by admin | Filed under Budget, Features
How to budget? Some general strategies are helpful in assisting families to set up a budget or budget better.
- The first significant step is to change your thinking about money, shift your attitude toward spending, actually focus on saving money, planning ahead and driving for success
- Develop a greater awareness of how you earn, manage, save and spend money
- Awareness of how others would lure, entice and want you to spend your money (advertisers, retailers, and manufacturers)
- To stop participating and playing the “Keeping-up-with-the-Jones’s game,” living with a false sense of wealth and security, while over-extending your self and financial resources, beyond your means. Do not envy others and lust after things that they might have or even worse, get deeper into debt to compete or keep up appearances. It is counterproductive and can ruin lives!
- Delay purchases – learn and do, sometimes without having to buy!
- Set solid financial and budget goals for yourself and your family that you can work on individually and collectively to achieve together
- Set spending limits and stick to them
- Do not make ends meet utilizing credit cards, stay away from ATM machines, cash, cash advances, do not cheat on your budget
- Understand your income – know where the money is coming from and how it varies throughout a one-year cycle
- Understand your expenses – monthly and irregular, unexpected expenses
- Set a few realistic financial goals
- Know your own habits, spending, temptation, and where the areas of risk and exposure are.
- Set up savings and spending mechanisms that work, reserve and growth accounts and have the right number of credit cards
- Make an income plan – detail is important
- Plan your obligations and must pays – smooth out large size bills with reserve accounts
- Plan your necessities and look for ways to economize
- Set aside pocket money for daily incidentals
- Create a family allowance to cover entertainment
- Create a personal allowance
- Balance and consolidate, wise decisions and trade-offs – agree and stick to it
- Live happily on a budget
- Welcome to frugal living mode! Cutting back on living expenses – alternatives for simple living
- re-examine why you work and how you live
- stop tossing your hard-earned cash away
- shopping, overwork, stress and debt (some refer to this as an illness quipped: ‘Affluenza’!)
- celebrate when you have money left over at the end of the month – indulge a little and reward yourself – rewarding patience and persistence! Not just the doing good and sticking with it
‘How to set up a Family budget’, is advocating a new code of fiscal honor for our families, so to speak. It proposes family budgets, that ask for wisdom (best choices and decisions), discipline (sticking to it), honesty (no cheating), persistence and celebration when we do it right!
THE RATIONALE AND PROCESS OF BUDGETING
Here are twelve good reasons to get you started:
1. Family budgets are used as a baseline, analysis-tool and roadmap. It is a useful tool and guide. It tells you whether you are headed in the direction you want to be headed in financially. It helps you to move from spending to saving and good fiscal balance, management and responsibility.
You may have goals and dreams, but if you do not set up guidelines for reaching them and you do not measure your progress, you may end up going so far in the wrong direction you can never make it back. Can you imagine the government or a major corporation operating without a budget? No, and neither should you.
2. It is often described and justified as an empowering enabler. A budget lets you control your money instead of your money controlling you.
3. A budget is a realistic estimate and true reflection of current circumstance and means, a type of financial situation-analysis that will tell you if you are living within your means. Before the widespread use of credit cards, you could tell if you were living within your means because you had money left over after paying all your bills.
There are lots of family budgeting tools available on line that make it a fun and enjoyable task and activity, to assess and analyze your family’s financial situation with minimum effort. (www.MoneyPants.com)
There is also lots of free financial software and most of it sets up easily and provides you with a detailed family budget online. It manages your finances, hassle-free and almost effortless.
Well, almost! It will require input and minimum effort through hands-on involvement in setting it up, populating, maintaining and editing it. Mvelopes.com is a good example of market offerings that are available at no cost to you, just waiting for the motivated family budgeter to embrace and try it out!
Some websites offer free financial newsletters by e-mail, with lots of money saving tips, budget advice, and other relevant personal and family-related financial information (www.planabudget.com).
The availability, accessibility, virtual marketplace, ease of use and more of credit cards has made the need for family budgets much less obvious. Many people do not even realize they are living far beyond their means until they are knee deep in debt, struggling to make ends meet and sinking fast into murky financial waters.
Budgeting is and can be a life and money saver, a reality check, BUT ALSO a remedy!
4. A budget can help you meet your savings goals. It includes a mechanism for setting aside money for savings and investments.
5. Following a realistic budget frees up spare cash so you can use your money on the things that really matter to you instead of frittering it away on things you do not even remember buying.
6. A budget helps your entire family focus on common goals. It is unifying families in mutual purpose and effort, working together towards a successful outcome and reward.
7. A budget helps you prepare for emergencies or large or unanticipated expenses that might otherwise knock you for a loop financially.
8. A budget can improve your marriage. A good budget is not just a spending plan; it is a communication tool. Done right, a budget can bring the two of you closer together as you identify and work towards common goals and reduce arguments about money.
9. A budget reveals areas where you are spending too much money, so you can refocus on your most important goals.
10. A budget can keep you out of debt or help you get out of debt.
11. A budget actually creates extra money for you to do use on things that matter to you.
12. A budget helps you sleep better at night because you do not lie awake worrying about how you are going to make ends meet.
Nevertheless, despite all these wonderful reasons quoted above, people are still hesitant to commit to family budgeting as standard practice in their households. We might again want to probe a little deeper still and ask why?
Where Are You Currently Financially?
Posted by admin | Filed under Budget, Features
How do you define financial worth? Is it cash in the bank, savings and checking accounts, RRSP’s, stocks and investment portfolio?
Remember, anything you have that is of value counts. All your assets form part of your financial picture and health. Ask yourself: What is your take-home pay, after deductions? How are you paid? Is it monthly, weekly, bi-weekly? Then you need to budget accordingly!
Think about all other sources of income, temporary, seasonal, part-time – extra income, found money and bonuses that you might have.
Maybe deciding to leave it out of your family budget altogether is wise and advisable? (we will delve into this question a little later).
Try to find ways to do without some small creature comforts and pleasures to reap bigger rewards later.
Starting small, early and now, with discipline and commitment, a steady, consistent pace and amount every month, tracking and optimizing financial phenomena like ‘compound interest’ (which we will describe later), will all feed into this process.
We will take this journey into budgeting together to see how it can change lives: yesterday, today and tomorrow!
Back to listing assets and thinking about savings: consider all banks, savings and loans, credit union accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, Christmas club accounts you might have. ALL LIQUID ASSETS that can be readily turned into cash need to be included.
Consolidate accounts if you have too many accounts spread out and save on banking fees. Improve tracking actual spending better and more easily. Earn higher interest and have less exposure to identity theft or fraud by getting a good handle on your current situation.
For most individuals and families alike, this step is quite a revelation. It forms the basis and baseline for deeper analysis and scrutiny.
Other assets might include things like: art, precious metals, sculptures, paintings, collections, antiques, jewelry and more.
Most of us are used to having a short-term focus on money and budgeting. A paradigm-shift is required to move us towards a more in-depth, longer-range view and planning.
Set short, mid and long term goals, have a definite structured plan, read up on family budgeting, personal financial and fiscal management strategies. All of this will help us focus on what is important for our needs, requirements and circumstance, while keeping financial discipline and budgeting in the forefront of our busy lives.
This is never an easy task amidst all the hustle and bustle that is our daily lives!
Most of the published literature on family budgeting in general centers around how to get out of debt, stay out of debt and live a full and prosperous life.
Some suggest frugal living is the answer and offer ‘your money or your life’ perspectives, where you cannot necessarily have both. There are many examples advocating the cheapskate monthly makeover that focuses on shaving costs off expenses and living frugally.
Market providers both online and offline, offer various budget kits which offers worksheets and more and there is always the handy tip-like Coles notes and the pocket idiots’ guide to living on a budget.
Other sources focus on becoming totally debt free, debt proofing your life, getting a life and choosing simplicity or how to address credit card debt and expenditure.
This ‘how to’ guide is a little different.
We have chosen to take a very hands-on, practical approach to fiscal management and get you started, walking through the budgeting steps and set you up, sending you off, well and good, on-course to solid budgeting in your family and household!
This brings us to the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How part of the discussion. These form the dynamic, interacting and inter-dependent elements, systems and processes that form “family budgeting.”
Who? Every family situation is uniquely different and distinctive. There is no one-size-fits-all answer and solution for everyone.
Some of the tips in this guide might apply to your unique means and circumstance, and others may not have any significant impact or practical application at all.
In general terms, you will find handy ideas, hints, process steps, practical savings suggestions and budgeting that might have gone unnoticed before.
The information provided is general and should be evaluated on an individual and contextualized basis. Remember to consult a financial adviser when making fiscal decisions that could affect the financial health, well-being and future of you and your treasured family.
There are various different families in question here too: single-income, single-parent, blended and/or extended families, double-income households, stay-at-home mothers working part-time from the home to make ends meet, social-supported and/or subsidized families, families at risk, divorced household with shared parenting and financial responsibilities, debt-ridden or bankruptcy families and numerous others. We hope to offer something for everyone.
What? Family budgeting is a structured process and planning activity, dealing with a family’s financial resources and context.
This hands-on approach puts expense items into categories as another helpful strategy. This is done to get a better handle on the current situation and offers somewhat of a reality check to most that choose to undertake this journey.
Some of the categories could be:
- Obligations – list each item under headings like: home: mortgage or rent; association fees and professional dues; insurance: health, auto, home, renters’ and life; tuition, day care; loans: car loan, student loan, bank fees and interest; taxes, property taxes and so on.
- Necessities – again list each item under headings like : food, groceries, gas, yard maintenance, security, pest control, utilities: gas, water, electric, garbage, sewer; school lunches, household supplies, car maintenance, monthly parking, housekeeper, household repairs, internet service, dry cleaning, cable TV and more.
- Pocket expenses – treat this as a whole category, covering: lunch at work, snacks, sodas, coffee, drinks, parking, tolls, newspapers, magazines, batteries, postage, shipping, mail
- Family Allowances – another whole category including items like : parties, entertainment, weekend outing, movies, concerts, other entertainment and events, home improvements and decorating, magazine and other subscriptions, dining out and fast food, furniture
- Personal allowances – clothing, hobbies, personal recreation, books, CD’s, manicures, hair, alterations, shoe repair, personal gifts, luggage, night out with friends, gardening, films, processing, video rentals, sports/recreation, family gifts, contributions, donations, computer software and other related items.
When and Where? In the interest of brevity, we combine the next two facets. Our best assessment to answering when and where the best place and time would be to start a family budget would be to answer unequivocally: HERE AND NOW!
It demands attention as it directly affects our daily lives and well-being. Without delay, hesitation or postponement, we need to step up and protect our family interest, financial health and future.
Accounting brings accountability! A wealth management guru is often quoted as saying. This rings so true. It is hard to ignore, if we are confronted with objective cold hard financial facts that tell us that we are in trouble.
Why budget? Families, as mentioned before, have diverse reasons and motivations for budgeting. Briefly summarized, people budget for a couple of reasons:
- To gain control of their financial life, monthly bills and spending
- Be prepared and avoid surprises
- Save for a major purchase
- Opt out of a vicious circle of ever-spiraling debt or spend-now-pay-later thinking
- Expand their lifestyle(s)
- Retire early
- Eliminate money as a source of tension and topic for argument
- Rediscover that the best things in life are FREE!
- Becoming self-reliant and empowered to know that debt does not rule their lives anymore!
We promise even more on this a little later!
Why Should You Have A Family Budget?
Posted by admin | Filed under Budget, Features
“The average family exists only on paper and its average budget is a fiction, invented by statisticians for the convenience of statisticians.”
Sylvia Porter
Unlike the quote provided above, seemingly reflective of general opinion on family budgets today, we will attempt to take a much more positive approach to budgeting, as a family oriented, user-friendly, financial management and planning tool and life-enabler.
However, when reflecting on family budgeting and inquiring as to why not more families are actually using it, it becomes self-evident that similar skepticism runs rampant and deep in reality and society, even globally so.
Once you start probing family budgets, expending time and energy researching the subject in-depth, it becomes quite clear, that most families are caught in a vicious, almost never-ending cycle of “What comes in must go out.”
Most families might feel that budgeting is a futile effort, unnecessarily burdening them with thoughts and ways, to go broke methodically and slowly, without the creature comforts and indulgences of our human modern-day society.
Others might voice that they feel as if they are merely throwing money away, in a never-ending and dizzying spiral of spend, spend, spend. People are getting deeper and deeper into debt, no matter how hard they try to get out of it. Questions are then raised : How do we stop these courses of action? How do we change the thinking around family fiscal discipline?
Put simply, in “How to set up a Family Budget”, we focus in on how to empower families to set up better, more realistic budgets, stick to them and celebrate their successes (and learn from their failures!)
Families eventually do have a monthly surplus, see their savings start to grow, consolidate their debt, set aside discretionary funds and personal allowances, build their wealth and become more aware of their pro-active involvement and responsibility regarding their lives and finances. This is when excitement builds and fundamental thought patters as well as spending attitudes are changed.
Budgeting is seen as an accurate measurement of success when significant behavioral transformation is taking place on the landscape of the family budget, spending habits and financial patterns we observe over time!
Do you ever feel that you do not have enough cash at the end of the month to pay bills, buy necessities of life? Are you barely making a dent in your credit card debt balance, no matter how hard you try?
Here is a reality check for all of us: if we choose to spend it, it is gone for good. We cannot spend it on anything else. Are you perhaps worried about a nest egg for your golden years or savings for early retirement? Then you have arrived at a source that can provide some prudent tips on how to start, finish, implement, stick to, revise and refine a family budget.
The family budget is a dynamic process, even more so than a mere static work-product, result, process-outcome or document. It will, can and should change over time. It becomes a barometer of a family’s fiscal circumstance, resources and health.
Maybe budgeting is not as much about reflecting on what you cannot have, but more about thoughts on how to stretch, invest and spend your earned dollars more wisely. In short, it is about making your money going further.
This quick-reference how-to guide was developed to assist you with setting up your own personal, household and family budget, to help you with all of the above and more!
A couple of general money-savings will also be provided in these pages. There are also thoughts and spending patterns that need to change, in order to become fiscally more disciplined and many techniques, attitudes, habitual behaviors that we need to un-earth, evaluate and possibly change, before you even start budgeting.
For example, being a bargain hunter looking for good buys, cutting down on careless spending, being on the lookout for careless credit card spending and letting the person who handles money best in your household actually take care of it, are all good examples of what we mean.
For most households, a budget is no more than a spending plan. Any spending plan can help you see where your money is going. It fits your spending to your income. It reflects how we get the things we want and need most, while being ready and prepared for bills we must pay every month.
For most families it is simply about making a budget you can live with and stick to easily. It is not a difficult exercise, but one most people fear, avoid or dread because of the unknown and perceived complexity of it (sometimes wrongfully so!).
Part of the goal of this guide is to demystify family budgeting and highlight an easy systematic process to setting up a quality family budget.
Many things actually drive our expenditure. We choose to spend our money on things we value, need, prefer or consciously choose. For some it is clothes, for others it might be something as simple as taking that yearly vacation.
Whether you are making financial decisions for yourself or your household, you might have to make some serious choices and adjustments regarding your financial freedom and situation.
“How to Set up a Family Budget”, is a quick-reference, easy, how-to guide, meant to take you through the typical, who, why, when, what, where and how questions typically asked when considering fiscal planning for the household and or budgeting in general for your family need, means and circumstance, now and for the future.
Budgeting is not just about restricting spending and living a cheapskate life. It is about insights, wisdom, informed decisions, action and sustained discipline when it comes to your household financials.
This guide will invite you to learn more in these pages about systematic budgeting. It focuses on practical application and zooms in to apply these “best practice suggestions” in your own home. It empowers you to put together a dynamic, financial plan that suits your pocketbook, means and circumstance.
Financially speaking, assess quickly where you think you and your family are today.
- What kind of a picture do you have?
- Could you come up with something?
- Did you have the data and numbers you needed?
- Would you be able to plan for where you want to be and start living your life today as a fiscally sound and disciplined family with the information you have at your disposal at present?
Money makes the world go round! It is no secret that some of us have more, some have less. We deal with our own personal finances and cash management distinctly differently.
Households have varying needs, means and circumstance. Our money-management skills are also at different levels, as is our debt and savings!
Budgeting has to do with most of these perspectives and reflections.
The purpose and goal of family budgeting is:
- financial situational analysis and informed awareness,
- (ii) cutting cost,
- (iii) gaining control or curbing spending and
- (iv) Starting to save, building up wealth and liquid assets over time.
There are many phases and steps to go through when creating a budget.
If you are looking for ways to manage your money better, making it reach and stretch further, and providing you with financial security and a more solid future, then you have come to the right place.
In this brief introduction on family budgets, we have already introduced our first couple of key questions
- Why an e-book or how-to guide on setting up a family budget?
- Why would or do you need a family budget?
- What is the business case for and rationale behind family budgeting?
- What are the benefits and advantages of a family budget?
We elaborate a little more below. For most people, a family budget is the equivalent of a simplistic process: money is earned and comes in; money is spent and moves out!
It is a fluid, easy-flow, one-directional, cash management process. It is driven by daily life, a spending-orientation, or no plan at all!
For most families, income is also fixed and outflow typically increases over time, as the needs of the family fluctuates and changes. Loading up on debt is also very typical for the majority of our families. If this sounds very much like a vicious circle, it is. Most families are caught up in it and constantly battle to get out.
Mostly, we think that we wisely spend our money on necessities like food and clothing, gas and household or family needs, but can rarely put a finger on where the money actually goes, let alone produce a budget!
A good place to start is to monitor these expenses.
Take stock of your fiscal situation. Start with assessing where exactly you are in your financial life and circumstance. Most of us think we know, but we really do not.
That is, until we take the time to actually list, study and analyze the situation. Figure out what your financial worth is, look at all financial goals, and set a timeline for reaching them. Does this sound like an action plan? Where do you start?
A good suggestion is your bank statements, tax return and recent current credit report – a financial asset statement if you will -and an overview of the current situation.
The premise is simple: you can not get to arrive where you want to be if you do not know where you are today, what it will take to get where you need to be and how to get there.
A well thought out, planned and realistic budget will serve as a roadmap to get you there. It is a financial tool facilitating your financial dreams, goals and aspirations, making them become a reality. Budgeting will enable you to actually reach your financial targets and set goals.