How To Start A Budget

Learning how to start a budget is important to financial security. Budgets are used across personal books and corporate files. Governments have budgets, not that they necessarily keep them. Learning how to start a budget is simple. Tools can be as simple as a notebook and as complicated as advanced software. Excel is actually a great tool to keep a budget with. This article will speak to the development of a budget. The tool recommended will be Excel. Keeping a budget anyway you see fit, is acceptable. The personal preference is just that and not a must for keeping a budget. Remember the importance and goal of a budget is to work towards financial security.

To start and maintain a budget, you will need:

• List of all your monthly expenses
• List of all incoming monies
• Excel (or something of your choosing)
• List of other expenses
• List of other incomes

How to start and maintain a budget:

1. Make a list of what you owe on a monthly basis. Next, make a list of any expenses that are not monthly (i.e. trash removal). List them out by name, due data and amount. For other than monthly bills prorate them (spread them over months by dividing the total by the number of months it covers).
2. Group the bills and list them as a weekly total. Take your incomes(s) and total them as well. Include any income that is not monthly as well. List the payday dates and totals. Each week subtract your bills from your income and record positive or negative flows.
3. This picture will tell you what your positive cash flow is. It will also let you see where you need to push money from one week to the next to cover expenses. This is a budget—to maintain it you need to follow the week in/out flow of money, save where needed and push money from week to week to cover expenses.