2019 Best Personal Budget Plan

If you have a regular income, a weekly or monthly paycheck which you can continue to receive, consider to create a personal budget plan.

It can be as sophisticated as an online or offline budget program, or as simple as a notebook to track income and expenses.

This notebook can also be a spreadsheet in the program of your choice, which can simplify things if paper is not your “thing.”

The notebook concept is very easy to implement and it’s quite effective.

How to make a Personal Budget

Create a list of your expected expenses.

If you pay utilities, split them out by type (electricity, water, heating fuel, etc) or cluster them in one block if you wish.

If you purchase groceries for home-cooking, create a category for this.

If you have a motor vehicle, another category for fuel consumed and possibly another for scheduled maintenance.

Examine past statements for checking and credit cards to ensure that you collect as many categories as possible.

Once you have these categories, assign a chronological period to each one.

For example, you likely pay electrical utilities on a monthly basis.

This entry could be 12 for 12 times a year, or 1/12 for the reciprocal calculations.

If you are paid on a weekly basis, your calculations would be different from bi-weekly or monthly income receipts.

The objective of this exercise is to determine how your expected income matches your expected expenses.

As a reference, I would assign US$250 per month for electricity.

This is $3000 per year.

For a weekly income, you would want to assign (in the notebook/spreadsheet) about $60 per week.

The math generated is $57.69, but by rounding up, you have an additional buffer to your budget.

For a monthly income, the math is slightly different, but the results are the same.

That one is certainly easier, as your assignment becomes $250 per paycheck.

For every category, perform the appropriate math and time reference.

Sum them up for the pay period.

If you have a higher expense than you have income, you are in trouble from the start.

By estimating your expenses high, you will have buffers for each category that will appear each time you pay one.

For example, the $250 for electricity would have a deduction for a $210 payment, leaving a $40 surplus.

Ideally, you keep the surplus in that category, but it also serves as an emergency resource should it be necessary to replace an engine.

On paper or in a spreadsheet, you keep a new page for each pay period, transferring the previous period’s balances and reference figures, allowing you to know at a glance your financial status.

Also consider to inform anyone who asks that you have established a budget program and are unable to be quite as lavish as before.

Best Fee Only Financial Planning Florida & New York

You don’t need to have a bunch of money to work with us.

We are fee only financial planners.

Fee Only Financial Planners allow people in any stage of life to create a financial plan.

They don’t have to wait until they’re debt free or get a huge raise. They can start now.

All you really need is an income and a belief that financial planning really can work for you.

We’ll help you with all the rest.

www.MintcoFinancial.com

Call us at 716-565-1300 or 813-964-7100

Email us at info@mintcofinancial.com