Category: Budgeting

Learn how to track spending, set your budget, and stay on plan

Budgeting

How to Make a Budget That Works for You

It occurred to me the other day how often I write about budgeting, the importance and trials and tribulations of it all. There’s no doubt that everyone knows about budgeting, but the real questions are whether or not they actually make and maintain one and does it really work for them? In fact, budgets sometimes are strictly “fantasies” and that, my friends. is the rub in all of it. If you just pretend to have a budget, then you don’t have one at all and every cent that passes through your finances is a crap shoot. So today I’d like to talk about how to make a budget that works for you.

Woman rearranging piggy banks as she figures out how to make a budget that works for you

When you are doing that “big gamble” with your finances and ignoring a budget, you’re putting everything at risk. I’m just going to say it out loud here: it’s not very smart and you will eventually regret your actions. So today I am going to tell you how I think your budget should be made to actually try to make it work!

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Budgeting, Personal Finance

What Are Sinking Funds and How Can They Keep You Afloat?

Have you ever heard of the term “sinking funds”? What are sinking funds? It sounds like something pretty complicated on the surface, doesn’t it? There is the ring of danger to it and it almost sounds like it’s high finance or big business.

Sinking funds are important tools in planning your finances. Here's how they differ from emergency funds and why you'll want to set them up.

It is, and it does sound scary to some perhaps because it’s a phrase not often found in everyday at-home use. But it is something you need to be aware of, because every one of us at some point needs to have one! Let me tell you about it and how sinking funds can keep your finances afloat.

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Budgeting, Food

Your Grocery Budget: How to Make It and Stick to It

Do you have a grocery budget that’s working for you? To me, it’s super basic, but to so many, making any kind of budget is like speaking a foreign language. Setting a budget goal for food will help you save money, period.

Whether you're making a grocery budget for the first time, or simply trying to save more, these tips will help you reach your goals.

Without a budget or a plan, your spending habits and your control over your money are doomed to fail. And it doesn’t matter how much money you may have, it still happens. But I can help you find your budget and stick to it.

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Budgeting, Shopping

Plan Right Now to Save Your Holiday Finances

It’s become so common for people to rack up huge amounts of debt during the holiday season, especially when they whip out the old credit card and throw caution to the wind! Between travel, parties, gifts, and décor, the amount you spend in December alone could result in an uncomfortably large credit card balance. Holiday finances can be tough to deal with.

It's not too late to plan your holiday finances. But the holidays are coming right around the corner, so now is the time to get organized.

You probably have fallen victim to it just as most of us have including me too as an impetuous youth. I lived to regret it and fortunately I learned my lesson and never did it again. So I ask this question of you now: Are you ready to plan right now to save your holiday finances?

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Budgeting, Debt, Personal Finance, Saving & Investing

Why Is Your Road to Financial Freedom a Bumpy Path?

If you are reading this post, chances are that you already understand what debt is and even may be neck deep in debt right now. That might even be true for you if just a few months ago you were actually making a pretty healthy salary.

In your quest for financial freedom, there are some bumps you'll need to overcome. Here are the areas you'll need to cover to get financially straight.

There are some good reasons you could have for being in that condition. The first one being that you may have recently lost your job because of the pandemic and that has cut off your main source of income. That just about always spells economic disaster. If you were never really any good at saving money, certainly losing your job will make your financial situation a lot worse.

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Budgeting, Personal Finance

How to Get 20/20 Financial Vision for 2020

It has arrived…2020. Wow, it almost seems it should be followed with the words “A Space Odyssey” to someone like me. After all, it’s been over 50 years since that great sci-fi movie “2001” hit the screen and now we are living in 2020. You can imagine that feeling by thinking how 2070 might be now if you had to guess what life would be like then? A bit scary, isn’t it?

In order to have a clear financial vision, it's important to know how you did financially in 2019, and to create a budget you can live with for 2020.

But having said all that, there is the real fact that we have to deal with 2020 right now using pretty clear vision, a la “20/20 eyesight”. The reason is obvious: if we don’t, we will be working with a handicap. And here’s the problem, without a 20/20 view to guide your finances, you are bound to fall short of your goals and there just aren’t any type of corrective lenses that will make your financial vision clear.

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Budgeting, Personal Finance

Building Your Financial Plan to Afford the “Candy”

How can you do smart things with your money? Everybody wants to have a solid financial plan, but over 40% of Americans don’t have one. And if you don’t have a plan to cover the basics, how will you ever be able to afford the frills?

Everyone needs a good financial plan to cover the basics as well as the "candy". If you don't think you need one, you may be striking out financially.

They say “the Candy Man can” and the Candy Man (the original, of course!) can sure bring back memories, especially this week. First of all, candy. It’s Halloween time and so you just can’t get away from it because it’s being promoted everywhere. Save money and buy, buy, buy in anticipation of all the costumed kids knocking at your front door this week. Yes, if you’re like most of us, you’ll be shopping and stocking up on candy and probably munching and stealing a few or more than a few for yourself, too. Guilty as charged here. I think it’s fortunate that this thing happens only once a year or I’d be perfectly costumed as one of those “walking dead” thingies myself. Candy may be nicer than a “rainbow” or sweeter than “sunshine” but for me, a diabetic, it’s not so much!

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Budgeting, Cars, Food, Home

3 Things You Can Learn From Early Retirees

Your retirement is something you think about with a smile and some pleasant thoughts even though it might seem like it’s light-years away. But if you get to your golden years with insufficient funds, it’s guaranteed to be a nightmare and very unpleasant! You don’t want to live through that scenario, I promise you.

If you're having difficulty saving enough money for retirement, take a lesson from those who have been there. Here's what you can learn from early retirees.

Saving up enough money over a 45-year career to maintain your lifestyle in retirement is pretty challenging. But there’s a lot to be learned from the people who have managed to hit their savings goals well before that point, people who then retire early. You can learn a lot even if you haven’t been bitten by the early-retirement bug. That’s why it’s important to concentrate and learn about these three things you can learn from early retirees when you think that your retirement is at hand. But before you find out the answers…

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