| |
| |
|
Personal Finance Information |
|
|
|
Budgeting Your Way to Financial Freedom
Financial freedom cannot be achieved without budgeting. Budgeting involves tracking your sources of income and more importantly tracking your expenses. It is novel tool for controlling your expenses and making you aware of how you spend your money. At the outset, budgeting may seem to be onerous and boring, particularly for those of us who hate numbers. But once you realize the benefits emanating from it, you will find it an interesting exercise. Even businesses, whether small or large, use budgeting as a tool to achieve their financial goals. It is, in fact, an integral part of managing an organization. Benefits of budgeting: Helps to control impulse buying. Helps to control your expenses. Ensures that you pay your bills on time. Helps you to borrow money when you need it. Helps you by not defaulting on your loan repayments, thus, protecting your credit rating. Helps you to save money which can routed to different investment vehicles that can in turn help you build your net worth over a period of time. The budgeting process The first step in the budgeting process is to determine your net worth. Your net worth = the value of all your assets less all the liabilities or loans that you owe. The second step is to identify your sources of income and the amount from each source. Your sources of income could be salary, business income, investment income such as dividends, interest, rent. Your most recent tax return and bank account can be an excellent source for identifying your income sources. The third step is to identify your expenditure items such as groceries, entertainment, mortgage payments, loan repayments, housing repairs, transportation, taxes. Prepare a spreadsheet with the following columns: a) description for each item in the two sections viz. income and expenditure b) actual amount c) budget amount d) difference (between actual and budget amount) e) reason to be given if the actual amount exceeds the budget amount. It is very important to ensure that you provide at least 10% of your gross income towards savings. A formula should be in place in your budget spreadsheet that will automatically calculate 10% of your gross earnings. The objective of budgeting will be defeated if it does not lead to targeted savings. Budgeting should generally be done on a monthly basis. It is very important for you to enter all the amounts that you spend into the spreadsheet. This will require a disciplined approach but in the long-run, it would definitely be worth it. Keep a separate paper file for each year divided into sections based upon the items of income and expenditure for filing your bills. Read More Free Investment, Wealth Creation & Personal Finance Articles & Tutorials at: http://www.global-investment-institute.com/ The Global Investment Institute has been setup to aid people in the pursuit of a better lifestyle through managing their money effectively, investing wisely and wealth planning for their future.
MORE RESOURCES:
Personal-Finance - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Stretching Your Grocery Dollars Shopping for groceries is an inevitable fact of our ever busy lives. We may imagine that we are saving time by dashing in, roaming the aisles and throwing whatever looks good into the cart. Your Dry Cleaner's Double Standard Women are charged more for dry cleaning services. Don't fume, find a better way. How to Choose the Right Bank for Your Online Business You should thoroughly consider your business needs when selecting a financial institution or bank for your small/home business. You may want to consider the following points:- The types of products and services that are offered. How to Attain Your Dreams on a Single Income If you recently became a single parent and see your dreams being washed away because you feel all alone, you aren't alone. There are single parents that face future endeavors alone like dating again, living on one income, and buying the home they've always imagined. The Origins of Check Writing People haven't always written checks to buy goods and services. But you know that right? So how did people transfer money from one place to another in times of old?In ancient times the most popular form of money exchange was the trade. Retirement Income Needs---Less Than You Think? It is widely written that you need 75% of your present income to maintain your present life-style in retirement. If you make 100 thousand now, figure 75 thousand in retirement. Do You Know What Tomorrow Will Bring? I've been sharing the following idea with people for a few years now, and realized recently that I had never written specifically about it. So here it is:"I cannot predict the future. Adverse Debt Levels Blight UK Consumers Personal Finances Debt levels are at an all time high in the UK. The younger generation tend to be feeling the pinch the most, but parents are increasingly being required to bail them out, often at great expense to their own limited mortgage or retirement savings. 10 Tips to Make Sure Your Financial Budget Will Succeed You've analyzed your past expenses, put them into spreadsheets, loaded Quicken with all of your data and come up with a budget. Now what? The tough part! You actually have to stick to your budget and put your plans into action. The Changing Shape of Family Finances Super-mumsIt seems that the proof of maternal efforts is no longer found in the pudding ? it's in the spending. Women are increasingly outsourcing personal grooming tasks and the pressure of looking good, feeling healthy, maintaining a tight ship and IQ level has meant that housecleaning and gardening are again fashionable methods to promote the family brand; housewifery is now a career, with all the attitude of 21st century post-feminism. Kundalini Lessons - Money I've been going through and interesting growth period lately that I thought I'd share, as some of the lessons were pretty profound (at least for me).I've written before about my awakening and the joys and tribulations since, and I've also mentioned that it's an ongoing process which, as far as I can tell, doesn't really end til you shuffle off this mortal coil. Grocery Savings - Your Kitchen is a Goldmine! Your food budget is the most flexible area of your household budget. Grocery savings will free up a significant amount of money if you need to balance the budget, or fund your savings accounts. What is ChexSystems? Commonly referred to as the first of the three major "Check Systems" in the U.S. Budgets And Eating - Can They Co-Exist? Whatever your reason for having a tight budget, the truth is that going to the grocery store without a plan is a BIG budget breaker. And sadly all that cash ends up vanishing into our stomachs and then. Top 10+ Ways to Jumpstart your New Year's Finances! Of course, these don't have to be done in any particular order! Just pick one or two that particularly apply to your situation. * Create your 2005 filing system. Resources to Help You Learn About and Protect Yourself from Identity Theft There is a new bill that is being passes, it is a very weak bill but if passed, it will prohibit using a social security number for identification purposes. This bill should take affect in 2006. Check Facts and Figures Are you a check fanatic? Don't worry, you aren't alone. Millions of consumers write checks every year. Top 10 Ways Managing Your Money Is Just Like Riding a Bike An avid cyclist and bike racing fan, I sit transfixed during the many hours of Tour de France coverage every July when the race rolls around. This year, during some of the less-than-scintillating early miles of the sprint stages, my mind wandered a bit, and it occurred to me that there are some interesting parallels between winning the Tour de France and winning at personal finance. Budgeting Tips to Save Real Money Sticking to a budget can be difficult, but with so many demands on your finances you have to be extra cautious. TV ads are constantly bombarding the airwaves with messages that you need to buy this or you must have that. How to Draw a Personal Budget that Works Many people spend their little income haphazardly without any planning and end up getting broke before month-end. They then borrow to make ends meet and end up with more problems that they fail to repay their debts promptly.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
