How to Master the Art of Keeping a Budget

culled from:wikihow.com

Having sound Personal Finance Budgeting has many benefits. Budgeting properly will help you plan for and reach your financial goals and dreams as well as eliminate all the emotion of managing your finances.

Financial budgeting is a necessary administrative task that if done well can help keep away debt anxiety, overwhelm as let you know exactly where you are so you know what you need to do to make your balance sheet look more positive.


Understanding how to budget your personal finances successfully is an essential and important tool to removing financial stress then.

Budgeting to tips to help you reach your goals.

Steps

1

Round up every financial statement you have. This includes bank statements, investment accounts, recent utility bills and any information regarding a source of income or expense and record all of your avenues of income.

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   Write down a list of all the expected expenses you plan on incurring over the course of a month. This includes a mortgage payment, car payments, auto insurance, groceries, utilities, entertainment, dry cleaning, auto insurance, retirement or college savings and everything you spend money on.
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   Break expenses into two categories:
   • Fixed expenses are those that stay relatively the same each month and are required parts of your way of living. They included expenses such as your mortgage or rent, car payments, cable and/or internet service, trash pickup, credit card payments and so on.
   • Variable expenses are the type that will change from month to month and include items such as groceries, gasoline, entertainment, eating out and gifts to name a few.
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   Total your monthly income and monthly expenses. If your end result shows more income than expenses you are off to a good start. This means you can prioritize this excess to areas of your budget such as retirement savings or paying more on credit cards to eliminate that debt faster. Also, keep your budget alive my making constant adjustments as your situation changes.
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   Review your budget monthly. It is important to review your budget on a regular basis to make sure you are staying on track. After the first month take a minute to sit down and compare the actual expenses versus what you had created in the budget. This will show you where you did well and where you may need to improve.