subject: Budgeting Money Is Stressful – Get Some Budgeting Tips To Make It Easier [print this page] Let me ask you a few questions before we discuss budgeting money.
Are you habitually running out of money before the month is over?
Are you unable to save any money at all out of each paycheck?
Are you operating without a monthly budget?
If you were able toyes to one or more of these questions, it is time to learn about budgeting money so that you canget your spending habits under control.Most people don't want to learn about budgeting money becausethe process just seemsso hard.
Even thinking about budgeting money makes most people feel uncomfortable andbrings up a ton ofless than pleasantfeelings.
What do you feel when I say the word "budget" or when I tell you that it is imperative that you set up a personal budget because budgeting money is the only way to gain financial freedom?
Stress
Anxiety
Fear
Anger
Deprived
Do any of these feelings ring a bell for you? I know that they do for me too. I have a personal budget but I still feel anxious just talking about creating a budget. The entire process of budgeting money can be a total mystery to a lot of people.
However, budgeting money doesn't have to be any of these things. It is time that you took control of your money and quit letting it control you. Running out of money all the time is a serious problem and that should be more stressful to you than the thought of planning a personal budget. Wouldn't you love to experience the feeling of having money left over at the end of the month? Wouldn't it be great to know that you were not going to run out of money any more? How great would you feel?
The key to planning a personal budget without stress is to break the whole process down into smaller steps. Looking at it as one big project can be very overwhelming. At this point, don't worry about how you will ever stick to a budget. Let's just talk about how to get a budget set up.
First, before you can do any planning at all, you have to know where your money is going. Since most people don't keep all of their receipts all the time, it can be difficult to go back and try to track where you money has been. The easiest way to tackle this step is to keep every receipt for the next month so that you can track every penny you spend.
Then, at the end of the month, sit down with all of your receipts for a month and categorize where your money has gone. There are going to be things like your mortgage or car payments that will be the same every month which makes it easier. But other expenses will vary and you will need to place them in categories like:
Mortgage - Rent
Utilities
Gas
Insurance
Groceries
Entertainment
Obviously, there are lots of other categories but these are some of the basic things that you will need to track just to get your started. The key to getting a budget that you can stick to is to know exactly where you are spending your money every month.
The third step is to take your monthly income and subtract all of your monthly expenses that you just figured out. You will then know if you have money left over every month or is you are spending more than you make every month. If you have extra money every month, then you can pat yourself on the back. But, if you are spending more than you make every month you have a serious problem and steps must be taken to reduce your spending and bring in more money. If you don't, your debt will grow every month and soon you will be buried so deep that it will be hard to recover.
The fourth thing is to create a budget using your income and your expenses and stick to it. This is easier said than done. It helps if you set up short term goals and long term goals that you can look at every day. Knowing you have goals that you are saving for makes it easier to not spend your money on a whim.
The fifth thing you must do is to stop impulsive spending. This can be very hard to do especially since your spending habits are so ingrained.
Budgeting money makes most people shudder with dread because they think it will limit some of the pleasures in their lives. But the opposite is actually true. By controlling your money, you can spend your money on those things that bring you the most money instead of just frittering your money away every month.
We have just touched the tip of the budgeting iceberg and there is more to it than we have covered here.
Budgeting Money Is Stressful Get Some Budgeting Tips To Make It Easier
