Budgeting is an important part of smart personal finance management. With a budget, your finances are planned and overspending is avoided.
A budget gives you peace of mind with your money. You know day-to-day you can spend your money on things you have planned. Further, you know that you have a plan to secure your retirement and medium-term financial goals. Even in case of emergencies, you don’t need to panic.
With budgeting, you stay in control of your finances, even if things change.
For example, you have time and resources to react to the loss of income.
Living paycheck to paycheck comes with many anxieties. It feels like money is in control of your life. While spending money is feels good in the short term, a lifestyle that matches one’s means is much more rewarding in the long term.
While budgeting takes some effort, it quickly becomes routine.
Modern tools like spreadsheets and apps make it easier than ever to plan savings and spend only as much as one can afford.
Budgeting is highly related to financial goals and how much effort it takes for how long to reach them. Many families struggle for generations. With budgeting, you can set goals beyond the next big purchase to add to your possessions. You know you can save for any goal and that can include a safe and comfortable retirement or even financial independence and early retirement.
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As I wrote about before, budgeting for college should include two budgets. One budget for the overall cost estimate of earning a college degree and the other is a monthly budget of expenses. The overall project budget is your guide if you can afford college. This you should consider, whether your parents will pay for …
Students: Is it worth saving money by living at home? Read More »
What are valuable budgeting skills for students? Earning a college degree requires two connected budgets. You need skills to draw up a project budget for the full 4-year term. Furthermore, you need to create a monthly budget. Tracking and maintaining the budgets is an essential skill you will need. Your project budget’s purpose is to …
What are valuable budgeting skills for students? Read More »
A college education is not for the faint of heart. The sticker price of a 4-year college education in a private school is on average $53,949 a year, well over 200 thousand dollars. Here is a list of college expenses you need to budget for attending college. Tuition Room and Board Textbooks School Supplies (incl. …
7 Important college expenses you need to budget for Read More »
A household has expenses that need to be funded by its members jointly. Creating a household budget is important because it shows where the money goes and how it is funded. A household budget can be different from a family budget. If members of the household are not part of the family, they are unlikely …
A personal budget is essential to control your money and not let your money control your emotions and happiness. It helps you to balance your income and spending with your needs. With a budget, you feel secure about your long-term financial goals. You want a personal budget if you live as a single or widow/widower. …
Importance of a personal budget for a happy financial life Read More »
Budgeting is an essential skill to achieve your academic and financial goals. Academically, you want to earn your degree. Financially, you want to put on as little debt as possible. The skill to learn is to control your money and not let your money control you. A budget is a tool to plan what you …
Budgeting for anything fosters planning and accountability with money. The importance of budgeting is to control the flow of money in a household, project, or business. Having a budget prevents overspending, as well as unplanned liabilities and debt. Learning with a budget A financial budget helps you to learn your spending habits. Simply listing the …
Through budgeting, family members agree on a plan for income, expenses, and savings. The family budget is important for everyone to only spend money within the plan’s limits. This prevents overspending and keeps family finances balanced. One important attribute of a good family budget is transparency. Communicating income levels and spending budgets as well as …
Creating and keeping a budget plan is not without effort and you better have a good reason for doing so. The main goal of using a personal budget is to balance your income with your expenses so that you can manage your savings and debt responsibly. The golden rule of personal budgeting is to keep …
If you are the type of person that likes to do things on paper, I have a free printable personal budget template for you to download. You can print it for each budget period if it is a week, bi-weekly, or a month. I even made a landscape version and a portrait version for you …
Printable personal budget template – free download Read More »
In this article, I want to present you here with a comprehensive list of personal budget categories. I will discuss what each category should include and what it shouldn’t, as well as highlight the why. However, this is not a template you should blindly follow. Instead, you should select the categories that fit your financial …
The 11+ essential personal budget categories to consider Read More »
Last week a reader asked me what I think about the 50/30/20 budget rule? I asked back, why she was interested and she told me that her godmother uses the 50/30/20 rule, but she was afraid to follow her example because it seems quite complicated. Definition and history of the 50/30/20 budget rule The 50/30/20 …
Have you heard of a budgeting method, called “zero-based budgeting”? It is a popular method to keep your household finances in order and to stay in control of your finances. In this article, I’ll explain to you what zero-based budgeting is and help you to decide if it is right for you. Any budget lists …
A personal budget is a decent amount of work. A minimal budget aims to reduce the effort to produce a budget planning document. What is a minimal budget? The minimal budget is the budget with the least effort. It is for people who have simple finances and who do not struggle with making ends meet …
Personal Budget – The most minimal budget (with template) Read More »
You have come here to learn more about a personal budget. There are questions on your mind, such as “Should I create and keep a budget for my finances?”, “Why do I always feel overwhelmed, when it comes to paying the bills?”, “Why can’t I make the money last until the end of the month?” …
Personal Budget – The ultimate guide through your finances Read More »
Creating a budget is an important step on the road to financial independence. A budget is a plan of your income and your expenses. You create a budget typically for a 1 year period. You don’t need to start in January, you can start right now. I’ll help you in this article to collect all …
