Budgeting – Your Spending Plan

Budgeting is the cornerstone to anyone’s personal financial plan, whether you’re saving a lot of money already or you’re behind on your financial obligations. A budget tells a financial story, and yours will be a successful one by planning, tracking and adjusting.

In its most basic form the budget includes income, expenses and debts. Income and debts are usually easy to identify and list. It’s the expense side of the budget that always seems to be the most challenging for people. Don’t forget to include periodic expenses in your budget such as car insurance or property taxes.

Financial experts have guidelines for recommended monthly expenses. After you create your budget, compare your spending to the guidelines below:

Keeping track of your income, expenses and debts will allow you to continually monitor your budget as you move toward accomplishing your goals. Most people tend to underestimate their expenses by about 25%; this is why tracking your expenses is an important step of budgeting. Remember, your budget is like a muscle. If it is not worked and exercised, it will get weak. So exercise your budget every week to keep your finances strong.

Use this Budget Worksheet to see how much money you spend this month. Then, use this month’s information to help you plan next month’s budget.

You don’t have to tackle your financial goals alone.The MTC Federal financial experts can help, schedule your FREE Individual Financial Analysis, a 30 minute one-on-one customized consultation to review your financial situation with tips to help you get on the path to a stronger financial future.