How to manage a personal budget?
Asked by
krypin (
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)
January 2nd, 2008
Is there any way to keep an eye on all your money. I don’t need detailed transactions or etc but some simple rules how to manage expenses
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6 Answers
The most basic way to keep track of your expenses and see where you spending your money is to create a spreadsheet. In the this spreadsheet you list your monthly income and fixed reoccurring expenses (i.e. credit card bills, mortgage, utilities, etc).
Monthly Income – Fixed Expenses = Money Leftover (hopefully you have a lot left over and not negative)
Now start tracking your miscellaneous expenses by category (Food, Entertainment, Gas, etc). This will give a you a better idea of where all your money is going on a monthly basis and help you get your finances in order.
The other option is to sign up for free account Mint that can aggregate all this data and more.
Good Luck!
R
Read Your Money or Your Life. It provides nine really simple steps to manage your money, but you’ll do really well even if you only follow the 3 or 4 core steps.
IMHO, it’s also worth figuring out how much you spend on expenses that may not recurring on a weekly or monthly basis, but which you can almost always expect to make a dent on your finances.
These include:
1. Vacations—Figure out how much you spent on your last one and allocate funds for your next one)
2. Celebrations—wedding anniversaries, birthdays, halloween parties
3. Gifts—how much did you spend on birthday presents, wedding gifts, and Christmas presents last year?
4. School-related expenses—field trips, school projects, etc.
Yeah, if I remember correctly, it is generally recommended that you maintain savings of not less than two months wages. That way you are seldom late on your bills and you have enough to cover incidental emergencies.
I would recommend having a list of things you use in your daily life, such as cigarette, diet coke, chips, computer games, movies, bar disco café... this list is endless, so what you need to do is prioritise your needs. Prioritise the most important and the least important things.
Afterwords, you can start using a nice computer software which enables you to track your expenses.
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