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Ah yes…..the wonderful Fall leaves start showing there color, temperatures start getting cooler, and people who are involved with budget planning for the next year don’t get to see these things take place or start pulling their hair out because deadlines are approaching. Forecasting, trend lines, and predictions…..oh my! Yes, depending on when some company’s have the end of their fiscal year, either they have already went through this or about to. On this day I want to help those who are not doing a budget for a company but for their families or selves. First, I do not like the “B” word……Budget,  so from this point on we are calling it what it truly is…….a “Spending plan!”

I think we can break it down into 4 steps:

Step 1:

What are your goals? If you don’t know what you want to accomplish, it will be hard to make any accomplishments and know when you are successful of them. Also I like to use this analogy, “If you get into a car, you usually know where you are going to end up. If you don’t, well……either you are stuck in park or going to run out of gas.”

Step 2:

What is your current spending like? From this point forward, start keeping a “Money Journal”. For a 30 day period right down EVERYTHING you spend and what it is spent on and money you receive. After 30 days, review this and trust me……you will see some patterns.

Step 3:

Create the TRUE spending plan! This is were so many people leave items out either on purpose thinking it will not affect them or they forgot of some expense that only occurs once or twice a year. You need to set up ALL EXPENSES and income on a 12 month payment plan. (example: insurance payment is $1200 one time a year, then for your monthly spending plan this will be an expense of $100 a month, same thing for any income) As I said before….don’t forget about the little things and the reason you did a money journal before getting to this point. Did you remember to put down that $2 for coffee, $1 candy, $1 soda pop, $1 newspaper or magazine? If these are regular items that you always spend on per day…..that just equals up to $5 dollars per day……$25 per week……..$100 per month…..$1200 per year! What would $1200 per year look like for your savings account, retirement, or your passionate goal you never have known how to find the money to do……hmmmm.

Step 4:

Implement and Execute! This is where a lot of people either start but do not finish, never start, or just put off and will do later. You can go through this whole process and it looks good on paper, but this is a matter of success or failure. Do you stick to your limits or push over them because of a WANT and not a true NEED? There are several methods and ways people use to help with the hardest part of anyone’s plan……..the HUMAN part. Be watching for later posts on these techniques.

These are just some basic steps and there is sooo much more information for each one of the steps. Everyone is aways looking for that next magical or easy way to help with their spending plans, but it comes down to only 3 things anyone can do:

1. Earn more money

2. Spend less money

3. Sell things you owe on or own to get expenses down

The amazing thing with a persons spending plan and getting out of debt, is about only 20% or even less it technical…….80% is the person themselves and what is in their heart or mind.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions on any of these steps as this is part of my volunteer work I do with helping people and their spending plans.