Budgeting Finance

Managing your money is easier said than done. But the best part is, you don't have to be a rocket scientist. Only simple skills are required: basic math of addition and subtraction. Everybody has it. The only thing missing is that you are not doing it.

Perhaps you are brought to this article because you want to know how to handle your hard-earned "dough". You haven't managed your money properly until you have started making your financial plans. The next thing you need to learn is how to create an effective budget that is tailored to your unique self.

Create an Effective Budget. How do you create one? There are so many advisers around telling you how to prepare it. The bottom line is the fact that it needs to be up and running and created specifically for you, otherwise it is just a waste of your time. You need to create a budget that is simple and effective. A useful budget that is aligned to your needs.

Save. As the saying goes, always save for the rainy days. Even the ants stock up their food during the summer. You should start to save money too. But the sad truth to most of us, almost nothing is left after paying those pesky bills. Your budget is your most helpful tool, it gives you an idea much you will be spending in the future and that in return provides you a sneak peek if there will be extra money left in your pocket.

Did I mention that your budget has to be written? When you design your own, write down all your income and subtract your bills or expenses. Please remember that one of the important factors of creating a budget is that it allows you to identify your expenses ahead of time. The difference between your earnings and budgeted spending is the overage or shortage amount. Recording your checks is not budgeting. It is an example of your actual financial event that has transpired. A budget is your monetary plans before it hits your checkbook.

Your budgeting goal needs to realistic. Recognize only the income that you will actually earn. Making one may sound complicated to others but it is simple once you get used doing it. As a reminder from the author, "Budgeting is always a battle you wage against your own self. Therefore, always plan and be prepared."

Copyright 2012 Theresa Pacheco. All rights reserved.

Please visit my website on how to budget effectively:

4-Steps to Budget Your Paycheck Effectively: http://thegirls.hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Budget-My-Income

The Effects of Paying High Gas Prices: http://thegirls.hubpages.com/hub/Gas-vs-Bus

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I read an article by Angry Anderson recently in Business Resource and Lifestyle entitled the Weak Do Inherit. He was warning that if the government continues its socialist trends of taking from the working class to give to those who do not work it will soon reach the point where the working class will stop working as they can receive the same amount for staying at home and doing nothing.

What do I mean?

As a life coach who helps families work out the best career strategies for themselves in terms of personal and financial satisfaction it is, sadly, essential to factor in government benefits as the system works in such a way as to penalise many average families from working harder.

At the moment if both parents are working, families do not get Family Tax Part B and if the family earns more than a joint adjusted income of around $120,000 per year Family Tax Part A reduces to the base level. Remember that the adjusted income means that you have to add in any losses you make from negative gearing, your superannuation contributions and fringe benefits from your employer such as a company car. Anything you do to get ahead financially reduces the amount of assistance you will get from the government.

A non-working family will receive approximately $880.00 per week in unemployment benefits, $160.00 per week in family tax benefits, $189.00 per week in child care benefits and rent assistance. A working family jointly earning over $140,000 receives virtually no government assistance, other than a child care rebate. With child care rates of up to $100.00 per day, even after the rebate, they will still be left with childcare bills of over $200.00 per week, if they have just one child in childcare. They also have to struggle with before and after school care and school holiday care costs and travel costs to and from work.

When you factor in these costs families on an average income are only marginally (if that) better off than families where the parents rely on the government for financial support. Parents who don't work also have little superannuation and continue to rely on the government in old age which adds further to the strain on the public purse.
This is an intolerable situation,

Next Step - Stop The Private Health Insurance Rebate

Now the government has decided to reduce the private health insurance rebate for families earning over $166,000.00 per annum. This means that private health insurance will cost 30% more.

Put simply there is now even less incentive for Australian families to put in the effort required to work hard to bolster the family finances and provide for their retirement. They are continually penalised financially for earning more.

This decision will force many families who struggle to pay for private health insurance to cancel their cover and rely on Medicare. As the public system is already strained this is a completely unrealistic result. The costs saved on the 30% rebate will be lost on trying to expand the public health system, which is already in dire straits.

It is essential that you take the time to speak with a financial coach to help you best plan your work and saving strategies, particularly in light of the government's system of penalising middle income earners.

Tonette Watson is a certified NLP Practitioner with much experience in Business and Life Success strategies.

She is the Founder of Sow For Success http://www.sowforsuccess.com/.

She focuses on the law of attraction as method of using your thoughts to shape your life as each thought is an energy source which connects with a like energy source, drawing it back into your life. The result is that you get the life you think about, even if this is not what you want. She also offers personal, financial, career and relationship counselling.

Tonette offers on-line, telephone and group mentoring and coaching sessions which will change your mindset and empower your life.

Tonette Watson
Sow For Success

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Money management may be one of the most important skills that all of us need to learn. Yet it is not always taught to us. I feel very fortunate to have been a student of Mr. Nick Cokinos for over 23 years. He has always told us about the value of earning a great living in the martial arts field, while investing our money in bricks and mortar and in the stock market. Mr. C. says: "Pay yourself first." I've followed his advice, and it's worked out extremely well for me.

My father-in-law used to remind us: "Short-term gains create long-term pains." It's very common to see someone with their daily Starbucks, eating meals out, planning their vacation, etc., instead of thinking about their life in the long-term and/or other long-term habits. The most successful people think long-term even in the short-term and plan for success.

My humble beginnings began in Rochester, NY, in 1986, when my love for the martial arts was so strong I decided to dedicate my life to it. I had been teaching at a YMCA and wanted more days and times to offer classes. The Y wasn't able to accommodate me so I signed a lease on my first location.

In 1991 when my lease came up for renewal his office told me it would be $2,225 per month to stay in my school. A 31% increase seemed pretty extreme to me, since at the time I was struggling to pay the rent.

Let's fast-forward 16 years. My school is very successful. I've purchased several residential properties. I've paid myself monthly and saved enough for a down payment on a commercial building. I was so afraid I was going to lose the check. Now I own a commercial building, from which I receive monthly rent.

If or when I decide to retire, I will still own the building and will continue to receive a monthly rent check. In a few years, I'll own the building, so once taxes and expenses are paid, the rest will be my retirement check. In addition to the dojo, I have two tenants in the building, who pay rent. I own five other rental properties, not including my custom-built home, which of course I live in.

The money management system that's worked for me has been:

"Goals we set are goals we get." It all began by setting goals. I set a goal to purchase one property per year for five years. This translated to six properties being purchased in eight years.

Get a system for saving your money. It's so easy to have 5%, 10%, or 20% of your income put into a separate account each week/month. Pick a number and "just do it."

"Track your monthly spending. Easy to do, but easy not to do." Jim Rohn

Budget. Spend less than you earn and buy the "right" things: houses, stocks, bonds, IRAs, businesses, etc. Do not spend on too many high-priced dinners, cars, vacations, etc.

Only borrow money for the "right" things: houses, businesses, and investments. Never borrow for liabilities: vacations, cars, credit card debt, or anything else that doesn't have the potential to increase in value.

All the best to you with your financial goals!

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Search the social networks. You'd be amazed at the offers you can find on the social networks. Some companies are just getting into the swing of using Facebook and Twitter, and begin by doing special offers for their readers. All you have to do is search for your favourite stores on there, and have a read of what they have to offer. A good example is Old Navy clothing - they give out printable coupons on their Facebook page, and you can sometimes get substantial discounts.

Save on your car costs. There are some really simple things that you can do to save money on vehicle running costs, which could add up to quite a few dollars saving each year. For example, accelerate slowly and maintain a consistent speed where possible, minimize braking (coast where you can), keep tyres at optimum pressure, don't have excess weight in your car, properly maintain your vehicle (oil changes, etc), find out the optimum speed for your own car's fuel efficiency. Paying a little bit of attention to these small aspects of running your car can mean decent savings.

Don't be scared to ask for a discount. Canadians can be very polite. But are we too polite to ask for a better deal? If you're in-store, don't be scared to ask for a discount, especially on big ticket items - not on your weekly groceries! The sales people are used to it, they hear it all the time. You never know, you could save a lot of money. I saved over a thousand dollars on my car... just by asking for it.

Buy an ebook reader. If you are an avid reader, it's easy to spend a lot of money on books. You could consider buying an ebook reader. Yes, it's a larger initial cost than just buying a paperback, but it will last you for years... and has a lot of benefits. You can load it up on books if you're going travelling, so you don't have to carry your reading material with you, taking up valuable room in your luggage.

Rent e-books at your library! Did you know that many libraries now rent e-books as well as the good old-fashioned paper type? If you've got an e-book reader like the Amazon Kindle or the Sony reader, you can grab many books from your local library, store them, and read them at your leisure. Just check and see if your local library provides this service. And there are thousands of classic ebooks online which you can legally download for free, as they are now outside of their original copyright period.

Join email newsletters. This is a great tip for shopaholics (like me). I use a junk email address to sign up to a lot of email newsletter from major stores and brand names. Sometimes they are just full of marketing speak, but from time to time you can get a real gem of a discount. If you would like some examples, the Michaels ( http://www.michaels.com/ ) newsletters send out excellent discounts every week - up to 50% off. These deals are applicable in the US & Canada.

Save on electricity. This one is pretty obvious, but you'd be amazed by how much you save by under-taking a few simple steps. Turn off the light when you're not in the room. Buy energy saver globes. Get a programmable thermostat. Never leave appliances on standby, always turn them off properly. Or you could even buy a device which does that for you - on my PC, I have a special adapter which sees when the PC is powered down, and turns off all the peripherals at that time (printers, monitors, desk lamp, etc).

Stock-pile. I save quite a bit by buying in bulk and stock-piling my groceries. In particular, stock-piling works well with canned goods, dried goods, toiletries, laundry and cleaning products. I always use coupons to get a good deal, then buy as many as I can store (always checking the expiry dates too). I never run out of soup or shower gel!

Recession gardening. Recession gardening has been in fashion lately - it's simply growing some of your own veggies or herbs. In the long run, it's much cheaper than buying at the supermarket, plus there is the added bonus that they are natural and organic. You can buy seeds and start from scratch, but I find it is much easier to buy young plants and transplant them into your garden or window boxes. I have a herb basket of mint, parsley, rosemary and thyme, which I regularly use in cooking.

Sell your parking space. If you live in a big city and have a spare car parking spot, consider if your parking real estate could be useful to someone. There are a few websites that facilitate the "renting" of your car parking spot to someone who commutes to the city and wants cheaper parking facilities.

Stock up on soup! As a foodstuff, soup has a much lower cost per portion than a lot of other things you eat. Plus, it's pretty healthy and delicious. You can even make large batches, and freeze some soup for future use. The possibilities are endless too... from Blue Cheese and Onion soup, to good old tomato.

Visit Bargainmoose.ca for more shopping advice, including Canadian deals, discounts and coupon codes.

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Very few people these days take the time to create a budget. As more and more people worldwide alarmingly are getting themselves into debt, it appears that people do not want to change their spending habits. So many spend more than they earn without even realising it, which is why creating a home budget is very important.

So ask yourself, do you want to get out of debt, start saving money, stop living from pay cheque to pay cheque and rid yourself of money related stress? If the answers are yes, then read on!

Home budgeting definition - Home budgeting helps you live within your means. By clearly tracking your expenses over a period of time, you can organise your finances and adjust your spending accordingly. A budget calculator will work out your spending habits from the following:

Your income - the amount you take home each week/monthHousehold expenses - rent, mortgage, utility bills, etc.Regular expenses - food, petrol, etc.Savings and investments - including pensionsLiabilities - loans, credit cards, etc.The difference - Total income minus total expenditure. If the expenditure exceeds the income, then measures need to be taken to adjust your spending

What will a budget planner do for me? - With a budget planner, you can set limits on your spending for each category of expenditure and it will show you where your money is being spent. It will also show you your spending limitations to ensure you don't spend beyond your means. It is difficult to stick within a budget, but the long term benefits are fantastic. Strive towards a debt-free lifestyle and take control of your money before it takes control of you!

Choosing the right home budgeting software - If you are new to creating a budget on a computer, choose software that is easy to install and use. Make sure it has the features you require to create your budget with automatic categories and the options to add more. Some home budgeting software will have features allowing you to connect to your bank accounts, PayPal, etc. and will have everything else you need to create a budget with detailed reports so you can clearly see your income and expenditure information. Check to see if the manufacture offers free upgrades on the software so you can keep up to date with any new features. Security is very important, so check that the software has the relevant tools to protect your privacy.

Where can I buy home budgeting software? - Home budgeting software can be purchased online either as a download, or on a disk. There are many free downloadable options too, but it is worth considering the possible pitfalls with these, as there could be security issues, plus these do not offer as many features. It is well worth paying for home budgeting software that will suit your exact financial needs, so select software that you can afford and will make your budgeting easy and accurate to help you take control of your finances.

Our Budget Calculator Is A Revolutionary Software Program That Will Push You To Get Your Financial Act Together Once & For All And Help You Improve Your Cash Flow! Give It A Try Today: http://www.cashflowbudgetcalculator.com/

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Most of us are always on the lookout for a bargain or a good deal. However, most people will overlook the following 5 ways to save money. These ideas will not take up a great deal of your time, and the savings can be substantial. Don't leave any money on the table.
Rebates. I know, sometimes the rebate process is a pain in the %%#@$. However, the companies make it difficult for a reason. It is estimated that 50-60% of people forget about their rebates. If you buy a product because of the great rebate offer, don't procrastinate. Read the fine print, and put all of the paperwork, UPC symbols, etc. in a safe place. Make sure you send in the rebate within the week. If you know deep down that you will never send in the rebate, maybe this particular purchase is not right for you. Shop around for a better deal without the rebate.
Discounts. Many people belong to organizations such as American Association of Retired Persons or BJ's. Check out the discounts offered to members and you may be surprised. American Association of Retired Persons members save at Walgreens and on car rentals. BJ's members can save substantial amounts on vacations and car rentals. Other clubs offer members up to 24% on prescriptions not covered by insurance, and discount movie tickets.
Phone Apps. Google Shopper and Shop Savvy both offer phone apps that allow you to scan a bar code to check prices at nearby stores. Many stores offer their own apps. Joanne's fabric has a phone app that will allow you to download coupon codes directly to you phone while you shop. Just show the cashier the coupon when you check out. It couldn't be easier. Coupon Sherpa also calls up discount barcodes directly to your smart phone.
Coupons. Subscribe to services like TheKrazyCouponlady.com. This service will show you the best way to combine coupons, sales and store rewards to get the best deal. You can also get coupons delivered directly to your e-mail box with services like Coupons.com or RetailMeNot.com. Typical coupon users save about $25 per week.
Tax Deductions. Don't forget to get a receipt when donating items such as clothes or food. The Big Sisters in my area will actually pick up items left at the curb, and leave you a receipt for your taxes. It is a great way to de-clutter your home, help the needy and save money on your taxes. What could be better?

I hope this article has inspired you to take another look at money that you may have left on the table. In this tight economy, every penny counts!

For more great money saving tips visit http://livingonabeerbudget.com/. Subscribe to the mailing list and receive a free budget workbook or spreadsheet. Thanks!

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