the "B" word

diez

the "B" word

January 2017

Debt Check – 29%

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Happy New Year!

I’m thinking of a word. This word makes most people shudder when they hear it. This word is a thing that only one in three people in America have. This word gets the WORST rap for being too controlling and too restrictive; but in actuality, it’s the OPPOSITE of those things. The “B” word. And no I’m NOT talking about the one that describes a certain friendly animal. I’m talking about a… budget.

That’s right. This topic is about BUDGETS. We’re going to discuss what they are, why you…yes YOU, need one, my method of budgeting, and different software/techniques used to budget. This post is NOT going to be extremely detailed on how to budget, because people (i.e. me) charge for those kinds of services. So let’s get right into it!

A budget is nothing more than a plan. That’s it. It’s a plan for your money. It's something you prepare in advance for a certain period of time, in most cases on a monthly basis. It's NOT a "spend the money first, then figure out if I have enough left over afterwards to do/pay something else." It helps you plan and pay for your rent/mortgage, utilities, groceries etc. and it also helps you plan and pay for vacations, a night out on the town, shopping sprees and more! Budgets do NOT restrict you. They HELP you get the things you want. If you want to go on shopping sprees every month, put it in the budget! If you want to travel abroad every year, put it in the budget!

That’s what I love about budgeting. It gives me the ability to do the things that I want to do like traveling abroad, without having to worry if the lights will still be on when I get back. It’s also WHY you need a budget. Too many people are living wayyyyy above their means trying to keep up with the Jones’. Don’t do that to yourself. In fact, I challenge you to budget aka PLAN for something like a trip or a shopping spree and set that money aside. When you pay for what you planned for, make a note of how GOOD you feel. I did that with my Zumba Cruise last year and had overwhelming feelings of bliss and satisfaction from not having that bill follow me into the next month.

So obviously, you need a budget because...bills. We all have them. If it’s not student loans, it’s utilities. If it’s not utilities, it’s groceries. Needless to say, everyone has expenses in one way shape or form. Budgeting is CRUCIAL to meeting not only your needs, but also giving you some of your wants. How many times have we seen someone we love and care about become overextended in their finances because they didn’t properly plan? Or because they had to have something right now instead of making sure they actually had the means to afford it? When you plan properly, you can have anything you want!

I’ve been completing and following a monthly budget since 2009. Yes, literally 2009. Yes, literally on a monthly basis. I knew early on that I was going to have a very lucrative career and realized that I needed to learn how to manage $10 before I received $100. Now it definitely has NOT been easy and I can’t tell you how many financial revisions I’ve had to do because I blew the budget. But with time, I’ve had less and less revisions and more discipline. So don’t get discouraged if you mess the budget alllllll the way up in the first few months because YOU’RE GOING TO MESS THE BUDGET ALLLLLLLLL THE WAY UP IN THE FIRST FEW MONTHS. I definitely did but it’s evident how much budgeting has helped me even with all the missteps. I still vacation regularly and I’m set to pay off my loans in December of this year.

My budgeting method is OLD SCHOOL. Break out the excel spreadsheet and budget template. I modeled my template off of Dave Ramsey’s zero-based budget explained in better detail here. I’ve sent this same template to my friends and family and they’ve all raved about how fantastic/user-friendly it is. But the old school excel spreadsheet isn’t the only way. There’s Mint, which is an online platform for all you tech savvy folks. There are also banks that incorporate budgeting software into their checking accounts like PNC Virtual Wallet. Try them out and see what works best for you! But for me, I will always stick to my old school excel spreadsheet because if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it!

Happy Budgeting!