Need I say more? If you do not have a budget, you will never ever have any wealth or peace of mind financially. Even a billionaire will eventually end up on the street without a budget.
They are a way of life (or at least should be) for anyone who wants to control their money, instead of being controlled by it. For those of you who claim to not have enough time to deal with a budget; you do. At first, it may take a good bit of your time just to keep up with your budget; however the good news is as time goes by it gets easier (not really, you just become more adept!).
So, if you have a budget already--good for you; if not? Get one. Not tomorrow, not next week, today. A Google/Bing search will turn up some simple, yet very useful budgets already set up for you.
There is also budgeting software out there, some free, others you have to pay for; however I would suggest when starting out you keep it simple--even something handwritten will do to start!
No clue where to start? Just start at the beginning of the next month and write down every penny you spend (yes, not an easy thing to start doing; but it is worth it, trust me!) A program such as Microsoft Excel will help (or do what I do and use Google Docs, they have a great spreadsheet program that allows you to enter and save your expenses from anywhere).
Once you get a month (or more) worth of expenses you can see where you are spending your money. Also, keep your pay stubs!
Now for the harder part (at least where you may start feeling the pain). Look at your paychecks for the month you have an entire months worth of expenses and calculate your after tax income (just add up your actual checks/amount deposited in the bank). Do the same for your expenses (yes, all of them! even the $.65 coke you bought from the vending machine), and subtract your expenses from your income like so:
Income (checks) $ 2,500.00
Expenses (total) $-2,395.50
Difference $ 104.50
Congratulations, you made $104.50 more than you spent! (Don't get discouraged if this number is more like $4.50 or even $-104.50; this just means you have some decisions to make.)
More to come...
They are a way of life (or at least should be) for anyone who wants to control their money, instead of being controlled by it. For those of you who claim to not have enough time to deal with a budget; you do. At first, it may take a good bit of your time just to keep up with your budget; however the good news is as time goes by it gets easier (not really, you just become more adept!).
So, if you have a budget already--good for you; if not? Get one. Not tomorrow, not next week, today. A Google/Bing search will turn up some simple, yet very useful budgets already set up for you.
There is also budgeting software out there, some free, others you have to pay for; however I would suggest when starting out you keep it simple--even something handwritten will do to start!
No clue where to start? Just start at the beginning of the next month and write down every penny you spend (yes, not an easy thing to start doing; but it is worth it, trust me!) A program such as Microsoft Excel will help (or do what I do and use Google Docs, they have a great spreadsheet program that allows you to enter and save your expenses from anywhere).
Once you get a month (or more) worth of expenses you can see where you are spending your money. Also, keep your pay stubs!
Now for the harder part (at least where you may start feeling the pain). Look at your paychecks for the month you have an entire months worth of expenses and calculate your after tax income (just add up your actual checks/amount deposited in the bank). Do the same for your expenses (yes, all of them! even the $.65 coke you bought from the vending machine), and subtract your expenses from your income like so:
Income (checks) $ 2,500.00
Expenses (total) $-2,395.50
Difference $ 104.50
Congratulations, you made $104.50 more than you spent! (Don't get discouraged if this number is more like $4.50 or even $-104.50; this just means you have some decisions to make.)
More to come...
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