Summary of Building a Budget
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Summary of Building a Budget
When you write down a budget, you get a better grasp of your finances and you identify areas in which you can economize. If you use the principle of "pay yourself first," you will avoid the debt trap that can ruin a budget with excess interest. A sound budget is key to successful investing. And if you decide to use the help of a budgeting tool, you’ll find that it does much of the work for you, and it may even show you things about your money that you didn’t even know were happening.
Many of us complain that we don’t know where our money is going; by submitting it to a good budget, you can see exactly where every cent of it is going. Want to take the next step? Try these suggestions to start.
Practical Ideas I Can Start with Today
- Pay myself first by withholding a chosen amount from each paycheck and putting it into savings. Start with an emergency fund. Use this calculator and this calculator.
- List my fixed and variable expenses, and my discretionary and non-discretionary expenses.
- Make a budget that balances cash inflows and expenses. Download this worksheet to begin.
- Research budgeting tools for computers and other electronic applications.
- Sign up for a free trial with at least one budgeting tool.
- Contact my financial institution to see if it offers an online budget program; if so, start using it.
What you have learned
- What Is a Budget?
- Budgets Compare Money Flowing In and Money Flowing Out
- What Are the Parts of a Budget?
- What Does a Budget Look Like?
- Economizing with a Budget
- Budgeting Rules of Thumb
- How Much Do People Typically Spend on Their Expenses?
- What Do Budgeting Tools Offer?
- What to Look For in a Budgeting Tool
- Types of Budgeting Tools