subject: How To Do A Personal Budget [print this page] Consumers know that people will have a personal budget. This will help limit them and save them money. In order to have a secure financial future you have to use your common sense and have strong discipline when it comes to money. You can organize your money matters accordingly with a budget.
A personal budget is a great way to help you control your income and expenses and to achieve your goals in terms of saving and planning for your financial future. A situation of over-indebtedness can be alleviated in this way. By budgeting, you are doing yourself and your financial future a huge favor.
What ever is spent on a monthly basis should be listed as expenses. These should be itemized such as other expenses, utilities and services, education, debt repayments, transportation and accommodation. One should err on the side of conservative when listing expenses. Receipts over the last three months will be a good indicator of what the average monthly total will be for each expense. Income will be listed on the other side of the page and should be itemized. Allowances, grants, overtime, travel allowance, wages and so on.
You should look at you savings and current investments. You can monitor them and see how it will compare to future goals. You can have goals set in short, medium and long term. When you cannot afford all of your goals then consider prioritizing them. You can then add your savings to your monthly budget.
You can work out and see how much your spending limits would be for each category. To afford your savings expenses you might have to rearrange some of your monthly expenses. Try to keep to certain ratios, as this could be rather confusing. Some pointers you could try adhere to would be to ensure your rent, mortgage payments is about thirty percent or less. Car payments should be no more than twenty percent of your gross income. Monthly entertainment should be about ten percent of your total expenditure.
Each month a certain amount should be put aside for the event of unexpected expenses. This is to have money in case the car breaks down, medical emergencies could occur and perhaps there is some kind of emergency while on headache.
Self-discipline becomes rather important in such things as drawing money at an ATM or making small purchases. All extras you buy when you only go into the shop for milk and bread can add up to a rather large sum. You could eliminate this problem by giving yourself a weekly allowance. Once you have spent your money, do not be tempted to go draw more money.
Always ensure to compare your figures at the end of the month to see the actual figures. If you did over spent in certain categories then try rectify it by not over spending next month. You could be saving money by taking your lunch into work with you. This will save you money on buying lunches and perhaps step in the trap of buying something additional. Do not defeat the purpose and be generous. If you budget your money better than this will reward you in ways of saving money for vacations, education and retirement.
by: Tobias McTavish
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