A budget is the most fundamental part of gaining financial independence.
Plan Income and Expenses
With a budget, you plan and control the money in-flows, as well as the out-flows. It documents your cash flow. A budget needs to be balanced, which means you are not spending more than your earn in income.
Set financial goals and reach them
The principal goal is to align your budget with your financial goals. A good budget is one that prioritizes saving to achieve your various financial goals in the future.
Be in control of your money
The benefit of budgeting is to keep control of your finance, to make conscious decisions about your money. This is in contrast to always being broke and living paycheck to paycheck.
Budgeting is communicating priorities
You can create budgets in different contexts:
A personal budget for singles or a student
A family or household budget
A budget for a vacation or a building project
Whatever the context a budget communicates spending priorities amongst its creators and users. In marriage, it should be the source of agreement about incomes and spending levels. Similarly, in a household formed by a group of people, it documents agreements on priorities and limits of shared expenses.
A budget can be minimal
Accountants might want to make you believe that a budget should be as detailed as possible. This may be true for businesses, where the concept emerged and where hundreds of stakeholders need to be aligned. However, in the realm of personal budgeting, you rather want to budget only as much as necessary to meet the goal. If your goal is to save 20% of net income and you reach this goal 10 – 11 months of the year, then there is no need to analyze your spending habits down to how many coffees you buy at Starbucks. However, if you have to pinch pennies at the end of the month to put food on the table, you want to have a closer look at where your money goes.
Enjoy our many articles written on the subject of budgeting:
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