Browsing Tag

budget

Budgeting

Understanding Why Budgets Do Not Always Work

Do you know why your budget is not working the way it should be? The biggest reason why budgets don’t work is because the people who are controlling the budget don’t bother to stick to what they put down on it. If this is you, then you either need to stop this or decide to stick to the budget from now on.

Another thing that you need to understand is that saving money or paying off bills is a great thing to do but it is much harder without a proper budget. It is because of this that I highly recommend that you have a budget in place before you do anything. Also, if you are serious about taking your finances to the next level, then it is imperative that you have a decent budget. Now, before you start making a budget again it is a good idea to understand all of the reasons as to why your budget might not be working well for you.

April 15, 2013

Budgeting

How To Survive Financially After Losing Your Job

Losing a job can be devastating, but it’s an experience that just about everyone has to go through at some point. Perhaps you were fired for a critical mistake, maybe you were replaced by another ambitious professional, or it’s possible that you’ve simply been laid off as a result of company-wide downsizing. There are a million and one reasons why you may have lost your job, but that’s not important now. The past is over and done, and you need to focus on making progress in the future. Financial survival after job loss should be your first immediate concern.

Begin by taking stock of your finances so that you can figure out where you stand in the world. Calculating your income should be relatively simple at this point. If you have any future pay coming to you, in uncollected checks or severance pay, include those figures in your calculations. Figure out how much money you have in your savings, credit, and assets, and then start looking over your expenses. Prioritize your bill payments and spending to put the most essential expenses first. You may have to make some sacrifices in the near future, but cutting frivolous expenses out of your budget can help greatly in relieving your present financial strain.

March 18, 2013

Budgeting

Top Tips For How To Maintain Control Over Your Personal Finance

In this tough and uncertain economic climate the average person’s job security is worryingly unstable. Combine this with an ever increasing cost of living that doesn’t truly reflect inflation rates and most of us are having more than one sleepless night worrying about the state of our personal financial affairs. However there are many steps that we can all take to ensure that we remain in personal control over our own finances. This article explores some of the best techniques to accomplish this:

Erase all your existing debt at once if at all possible.

Of course this is not always a possibility. However if you are one of the many people who happily live through their credit card overdraft you should balance that account immediately. Indeed it would be wise to deposit extra funds into any credit card account so you can still make emergency purchases with the card without putting the account into overdraft. This is important because it removes the risk of forgetting or not being able to pay off your outstanding balance at the end of each month, so should you lose your source of income you do not have to be concerned with the late payment penalty fees and the interest on your debt that will continue to gain momentum the longer it is unchecked.

January 31, 2013

Shopping

Think Before You Shop – 3 Ways To Save Money

How often do you shop for something that you need? Are you constantly looking for a good deal? There are a lot of people out there that shop even when they don’t have the money and that is why I want to show you a few ways to save money even while shopping. Although this will take some mental power on your part, it is going to benefit you in the long run.

Stick to a plan.

The very first thing you must do if you plan on saving money while still shopping is to stick to a plan. By plan I am talking about creating a plan as to which stores you are going to shop at, how much you will spend at each one and what you plan on buying. The reason why planning is so important to saving money is because it eliminates the amount of money you spend on things you don’t need. A lot of people will spend roughly 15% of their money just on things that catch their eye, so make sure you avoid this altogether.

December 27, 2012

Budgeting

A Handy Budgeting Tool From Kiplinger.com

If one of your New Year’s Resolutions for 2010 is to create a budget and stick to it, I found a nifty tool that you might find helpful. Kiplinger.com has a budgeting tool that will help you get started. It lists several possible expenditures that your family may incur, and it has the function to do the math for you, so you will know in an instant how successful you were at sticking within your budget.

Don’t be discouraged if at first you find it difficult to determine how much should be allocated to each expense. It will take time to figure out what is practical and reasonable. It will also take some time to get used to having to stick within a set budget, but you can do it. Believe me, it’s worth it if you don’t want to squander all of your money.

I especially like the fact that this tool also accounts for your savings budget, containing fields for an emergency fund, a vacation fund, etc. The tool was created for Americans as one of the fields is labeled Retirement/401(k), nevertheless this tool can be used by anyone, and Canadians can put their RRSP savings into this field.

If you don’t already follow a budget, I want to encourage you to set one up for 2010. This tool will help you to get started. Click this link to check out the budgeting tool.

January 18, 2010

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