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:
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Understanding Your Finances Can Give You Power And Choice
What is finance and what do you need to know? Finance can mean different things. It may refer to your personal financial situation.
7 Simple Ways To Save Money
Each of us knows how to spend money, but do we really know how to save our money? No, I am not necessarily talking about setting aside funds for an investments purposes - a good thing - but saving money on everyday items. Here are seven simple ways you can save money:1.
Identity Theft is a Major Problem: Whose Responsibility is It to Protect the Consumer?
We have heard a lot about consumers' personal information getting into the hands of identity thieves. More and more people are taking steps to minimize their exposure to such theft by reducing information on personal checks, refusing to share social security numbers with just anyone who asks, being prudent in their use of credit cards, and shredding "junk" mail that might allow another person to pose as them.
Save Money Off Your Home Utility Bills
Many don't realize that our basic utility bills provide the perfect money saving opportunity for practically every household!Especially with today's energy crisis so prevalent throughout many of the states, you've probably heard this term - conservation.Guess what, conservation really means "using less".
Live Green; Save Green!
Have you seen the recent article on a new "green" residential high rise in Battery Park? It's called The Solaire. For a look at the hopeful future of architectural efficiency, check out the myriad of cost saving and environmentally-friendly features of the building:http://www.
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.
Knowing Me, Knowing You: Why ID Protection Plans Are Flawed For Fraud
ID theft is a major consumer concern, though there is apparently much confusion about proactive protection initiatives and apparently safe and unsafe spending behaviour. For example, many consumers remain reluctant about shopping online, but they may still give out personal details over the phone in a cold call, or they may have redundant or dormant accounts and financial products which are susceptible to fraud.
When do You Need a Financial Management Company on Your Side?
We live in a crazy world. Someone ought to sell tickets.
Help With My Annuity
The cries are heard from the distance, "I need help with my annuities." Nothing has changed.
Avoiding A Nightmare On Renovation Street
You've decided you want a bigger, better and more desirable house. How do you determine when to renovate, what to do and importantly, how much will it cost and will we get our money back?Unless you're in the building industry, most people are fairly naïve when it comes to making decisions about renovating.
Vesting and Your 401(k)
Do you have a 401(k) retirement account? Are you vested yet? Before you move on to your next job, it is critical for you to find out if you are fully vested in your retirement account before you make the move. If you are not, you could lose hundreds if not thousands of dollars in employer contributions.
Personal Checks - Extreme Benefits
Millions of people have a checking account and many people have two of three. They have the choice of choosing a variety of check designs to compliment the checking account.
5 Steps to Healthy Spending Habits
Next to our physical health most of us are primarily concerned with our financial health, and with good reason. Although our intentions are usually great our follow-through and discipline generally isn't.
A Fresh Start for Family Finances in 2005
While 40% to 50% of us make New Year's resolutions on January 1-a ritual that has existed since ancient times-approximately 60% to 80% of us have already broken them by the end of February, according to researchers.It's still not too late, however, to reset the trajectory on your family's finances, experts note.
Is There A Retirement Crisis?
When people speak about the increasing age expectancies, they generally do so with positive connotation. This author agrees-there's nothing wrong with living longer, especially if we can sustain our quality of life at each period throughout our lifespan.
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.
Budgeting your Savings - Did You Let Your Piggy Bank Get Away?
I think most of us have at some point in our lives. Some how we forget to feed the little piggy.
Financial Fitness - Are You Exercising the Right Muscles to become Financially Fit?
Are your financial muscles well toned and healthy or flabby and weak? Do you want to change your relationship with money so you can have control over your financial future or do you want to continue to complain that you don't have enough? Exercise these 10 muscles to achieve Financial Fitness.1.
Financing Collectibles for Fun and Profit
With the advent of the internet and especially auction services like those provided by Yahoo and E-bay, serious collectors have much larger arenas in which to buy and sell their wares. This provides the opportunity for quick discovery of hard-to-find items that previously might have taken years to find.
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.
|