Planning and Budgeting Your Future

Imagine trying to build a house without a floor plan.  Or designing the new space shuttle without a detailed plan showing you where to start…

These sound pretty difficult but no more difficult than the way people approach their finances when they don’t have a comprehensive plan as to how to plan and budget their finances.

No one plans to live paycheck to paycheck. For many people, it is what they know.  Their family didn’t have a plan so they live their life the way they were taught (or rather not taught).  This causes poor financial decision cycle to continue until someone decides to try something new.

Today try something different.  Make a plan for your finances so you can be prepared for any event life may throw at you.  Start simply by deciding what is important to you now?  1 year from now?  5 years from now?  How do you plan to financially achieve these goals?  Discuss your plans with your spouse and figure out what are your long and short financial term goals.  How do you plan to achieve  these goals?

Make room for flexibility in your budget so you can reasonably achieve your goals.  Allow for your normal monthly expenses and account for your income.  Train yourself to keep track of your receipts and other expenditures to ensure your budget remains accurate.  Most importantly, add savings into your budget so you can develop the nest egg to protect yourself.

The most important part of your budget is getting started.  Take the initiative to do something positive for your finances.  Take charge and start planning and budgeting for  your future! The excel spreadsheet below is an example of an excel budget template  that can be used for planning and budgeting your finances.

Click here to find FREE planning and budgeting excel templates on your computer.