Now here is where your budget will become far more advanced than everyone else’s: • Copy your one-month column 12 times so that you cover all 12 months! Yes, our budget is going to go for the whole year. What’s Wrong With One-Month Budgets? Lots: … [Read more...] about How to Budget – Step 3 – Take It All The Way to 12 Months
expenses
How to Budget – Step 2 – Income Vs Expense
Take that list of your major expenses you created in Step 1 and list them for one month. Create one column and put your rows of expenses near the bottom half of the page. Income Now let’s go up to the top of the column. This is where we will list your income for the month. For most of us, that will simply be your paychecks and your spouse’s paychecks. Congratulations if you have other significant forms of income. Some examples might be: … [Read more...] about How to Budget – Step 2 – Income Vs Expense
How to Budget – Step 1 – Where Does All My Money Go?
THIS IS NOT going to be one of those “how-to” examples where you’re told to record ever purchase you’ve ever made. Doing that accomplishes NOTHING but wasting a lot of time. Besides, Mint.com can already do this for you automatically. I’ll have more on that later in this series. Instead, look back through your checkbook from the past few months. What were your MAJOR expenses? Make a list of them. I highly recommend using Microsoft Excel if possible. And yes, there will be a link to the template we create throughout this series at the end. Here are a few examples: … [Read more...] about How to Budget – Step 1 – Where Does All My Money Go?
How to Budget My Money – Introduction
Creating a budget is one of the single best financial actions you can take for your household. Once you have your goals and priorities straight, the next step is to learn how to manage your money. Setting a budget is something that has to be done even before you learn how to invest your money. Why? Because all the income in the world won’t make you any richer as long as you’re spending more than you take in. … [Read more...] about How to Budget My Money – Introduction
Year-End Financial Checklist
The end is near! The end of the year that is … And with that, December is a good time to get you finances in order and get ready to settle with the tax man. Here are some tips to get yourself ready for another year: Set Your Budget for Next Year: Remember, a budget is simple: • Money In – Money Out > 0 = Success. The best way to do this is to create a table with 12 columns; one for each month. Start by listing your income towards the top. Then list all your bills and expenses. This strategy is usually a little more effective than just doing one generic monthly budget because it captures expenses that don’t occur every month or are seasonal (like Christmas expenses). This also lets you see how you’re doing throughout the entire year … [Read more...] about Year-End Financial Checklist