The Ultimate Financial Management Tool
You can call it whatever you want, a budget, goal, or plan, but you need a tool to manage your finances.
A carpenter uses a set of house plans to build a house. If he didn’t the closets might get overlooked altogether, and that wouldn't make for a very good living space.
Rocket Scientists would never begin construction on a new booster rocket without a detailed set of design specifications. Yet most of us go blindly out into the world without an inkling of an idea about finances and without any plan at all.
Not very smart of us, is it?
A money plan is called a budget and it is crucial to get us to our desired financial goals.
Without a plan we will wander without direction and end up in a financial pit. One that will last several years or possibly a lifetime.
If you have a spouse or a significant other, you should make this budget plan together. Sit down and figure out what your joint financial goals are…long term and short term.
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Then plan your route to get to those goals. Every journey begins with one step and the first step to attaining your goals is to make a realistic budget plan that both of you can live with.
A budget should never be a financial starvation diet. That won’t work for the long haul. Make reasonable allocations for food, clothing, shelter, utilities and insurance and set aside a reasonable amount for entertainment and the occasional luxury item. Savings should always come first before any spending.
Even a small amount saved will help you reach your long term and short term financial goals. You can find many budget forms on the internet. Just use any search engine you choose and type in “free budget forms”.
You’ll get lots of hits. Print one out and work on it with your spouse or significant other. Both of you will need to be happy with the final result and feel like it’s something you can stick to.
Spending Wisely to Save Money
I am sure you have noticed that the things you buy every week at the grocery and hardware stores go up a few cents between shopping trips? Not by much…just by a little each week but they continue to creep up and up.
All it takes for the price to jump up by a lot is a little hiccup in the world wide market, a small outbreak of e coli; or note the price of gasoline as it relates to world affairs.
There is a way that we can keep these price increases from impacting our personal finances so much and that is by buying in quantity and finding the best possible prices for the things we use and will continue to use everyday… things that will keep just as well on the shelves in our homes as it does on the shelves at the grocery store or hardware store.
For instance, dog food and cat food costs about 10% less when bought by the case than it does when bought at the single can price and if you wait for close out prices you save a lot more than that.
Set aside some space in your home and make a list of things that you use regularly which will not spoil. Any grain or grain products will need to be stored in airtight containers that rats can’t get into so keep that in mind.
Then set out to find the best prices you can get on quantity purchases of such things as bathroom items and dry and canned food.
You will be surprised at how much you can save by buying a twenty pound bag of rice as opposed to a one pound bag but don’t forget that it must be kept in a rat proof container.
You can buy some clothing items such as mens socks and underwear because those styles don’t change, avoid buying children’s and women’s clothing, those styles change and sizes change too drastically.
Try to acquire and keep a two year supply of these items and you can save hundreds of dollars.
Developing a savings habit is just one of the many ways towards being a good money manager. Today is the best time to start; don't put it off until tomorrow. If you are one of those procrastinating people, there is a good program that I use and you can view it at http://1e5b5br6z06d1wemzmzlzzgm5o.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=STOPPROCRASTINATING
May your finances increase as you move forward in life.
BY: Earl Baldwin
