Practical Tips for Budgeting

Oftentimes it feels overwhelming to start the budgeting process. How do I begin? What do I need? How do I know what my expenses are? In this super short post, I will go over a three practical tips for budgeting to help you get started.

1. Know Your Spending

   1. In my last blog post I discussed how to track your spending & why. Please read through that as tracking your spending can be the #1 most important thing you do when beginning to budget.

   2. The only way to tailor a budget to your personal life is to know your spending.

   3. While going through your spending, decide on the things that you really want to spend money on. For example, are you spending $200 on TV services & only watching TV sporadically? And at the same time have you been wanting to plan a trip but feel like you don't have the money to save for vacation? Looking at your spending can help you decide where your priorities lie.

      
      

2. Plan for the Unexpected

   1. No one wants to spend their hard earned money on emergencies such as a new roof or other home repair, but unfortunately we need to understand that unexpected expenses are a "when" not an "if."

   2. You can plan for the unexpected by setting aside money in a savings account for these emergencies. If you can choose a savings account that allows you to create different buckets for things, that's great!

   3. Once you have money set aside for the unexpected, when these expenses occur you will feel less stress spending the money because you have it set aside specifically for this purpose.

      
      

3. Don't Forget to ENJOY LIFE!

   1. Yes, budgeting does not mean never spending money on fun things! In fact, the way I work my business is encouraging my clients to spend money on the things they enjoy! This is why we track our spending & find out where our priorities are. If we never watch Netflix & we want to travel, then cancel that Netflix subscription & start setting aside more money for things that you enjoy more.

   2. Budgeting is about smart spending & adding to the fun things in life!

   3. Afterall, if you aren't finding ways to enjoy your money, you will not stick with a healthy budget.