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Budgeting Your Money: Tips, Articles and Links

Budgeting money is another important area in personal finance. A well-planned household budget will enable you to gain control over your finances and free up money for long-term investments. A household budget, as sometimes is thought, is not meant to be a noose around your neck but rather a planning and money management tool that empowers you. The object behind a budget is to "spend" all of your monthly income before you get it, to include regular contributions to your savings account.

The free budget templates, excel budget templates, budgeting software, articles, and tips below can quickly help you accomplish this important personal finance objective.

Household Budgeting Tip #1 - Make establishing a household budget a priority for your family. Budgeting money is very important for military service members. Deployments and sometimes long working hours can take their toll on a military member's finances. Developing a budget, with your spouse if you are married, and

putting your personal finances on "auto-pilot" can ease this burden and pay huge dividends! Taking the time to develop a personal or family budget allows you to gain an understanding about where your money is going and, from there; you can make adjustments as necessary.

Household Budgeting Tip #2 - Figure out your net worth. Something else that you should take some time to do is figure your net worth. The results may surprise you! What is net worth? Simply put, net worth is the value of all your assets minus the value of your liabilities. Don't know what assets and liabilities are? Click Here to find out. Your personal net worth should be positive; your assets should be worth more than your liabilities. Your net worth is an important number for tracking progress towards your savings, investment, and retirement goals. You may be wondering, "What does net worth have to do with budgeting money?" Well, the first step towards a high personal net worth is a budget that helps you gain control over your money!

Household Budgeting Tip #3 - Use the many tools, free templates, links, and articles provided here to design a winning family budget today! We won't go into the details on creating a household budget or net worth statement here, but listed below are articles that will explain the nuts-and-bolts to creating a successful household budget. Also included in the links below are budget and net worth templates that you can use with Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheet programs. One of the advantages of using spreadsheets is that they do the math for you and some can even generate charts and graphics if you like.

Household Budgeting Tip #4 - Use budgeting software and information on the internet to simplify the process of creating your budget. The links below will lead you to some other great budgeting sites and sites that provide software to make budgeting money a snap! Check out these sites today.

What's the bottom line on budgeting your money?

Household budgeting doesn't have to be hard. Use the tools provided here to develop a personal or household budget today, take control of your money, and take that first step towards achieving a high net worth!

Budgeting Articles

Living Within Your Budget - by Chemain Evans - Tips to living within your budget. Having a budget and living within it are two different things. There are always things that we want (or need) and credit is so easy to get. This article will discuss ways to help you establish good budgeting habits. View full article...

Designing a Budget Around Your Take-Home Income - by Lyle Evans - Five crucial steps to designing a budget based on your take home income. How to calculate your take home income, understanding bills and expenses, tracking expenses, saving for your future and managing your finances are a few of the topics in this article. View full article...

Setting Up A Budget - by Chemain Evans - Seven easy steps to creating a budget. Few things strike more fear into the hearts of people than setting up a budget. We all know we need one, a few of us actually have one, and fewer still manage to live within it. Why is it so intimidating? Whatever your reason, now is the time to start! View full article...

Successful Budgeting for Students - by Sandy Shields - Managing a budget is not as hard as it sounds. Making the initial commitment to live according to your budget is the hardest part. If you have done that, you are well on your way to wise spending and saving. View full article...

Budget & Net Worth Templates

Personal Budget -This is a good, basic budget template. It converts your monthly dollar amount inputs into annual amounts and also calculates what percentage of your income certain expenses equate to. For example, if you made $1000/month income and your monthly credit card payments totaled $250/month, your credit card payments would equal 25% of your income (the spreadsheet automatically calculates this).	Personal Monthly Budget - This template is great for those of you that like to track your expenses throughout the month. It has columns for projected and actual amounts. This format really allows you to determine which areas of your budget need the most work. For example, you may budget $500/month for food and when you total it up at the end of the month you find that you have spent $600. By tracking projected vs. actual amounts, you can make your monthly budget very precise!
Personal Budget #2 - This template is more detailed than the first one. It separates each month out individually and contains more subcategories for expenses. This format can be useful if you have income that varies from month to month or if you have expenses that don't occur each and every month.	Family Budget - This template is very similar to the personal monthly budget template described above except that it adds many subcategories of expenses that are common to families such as children and pets expenses. This template also allows you to track projected vs. actual amounts.
Personal Financial Statement - This basic spreadsheet allows you to calculate your personal net worth. It provides you with the basic assets such as cash in checking and savings accounts and basic liabilities such as credit card and mortgage debt. All you have to do is enter the amount for each category and the spreadsheet calculates your net worth. Remember--higher is better!	Net Worth Calculator - Much the same as the personal financial statement described above with the addition of some more asset and liability categories. This format is also more "visually appealing" in case you want to print it out and show it off!
Retirement Budget - This template allows you compare your current expenses with your projected expenses when you retire. Most financial planners estimate that your expenses in retirement will be around 80% of your current expenses (assuming that you are married and have children). It also allows you to estimate how much income you will receive from Social Security and pensions and see if that will be enough to cover your expenses in retirement. If there is a shortfall, that is the amount that your investments will need to cover. You can then use one of the financial calculators on our investments page to determine how much you will need to save to come up with the shortfall.

Budgeting Links

Personal Budgeting and Money Saving Tips - This site has a ton of free information on personal budgeting and money saving tips. Explains the importance of having a household budget, describes how to create a budget, details the advantages of budgeting, and provides money saving tips that will ensure you stay on your budget.

Basic Budget Worksheet for Personal Budgets - This valuable link provides a ready-to-print budget worksheet as well as links to several other household budgeting sites and resources.

Debt Reduction Software - Rapid debt reduction software and financial management tools from ZilchWorks can help you avoid bankruptcy and get control of credit card debt.

12 Reasons Budgeting Can Improve Your Life - This article from About.com, explains some compelling reasons to have a household budget. Many links to other budgeting sites and resources are also provided.

Personal Budgets to Fit Your Lifestyle, Needs, and Wants - Learn how to create a personal budget that's right for you. Get budgeting tips, money saving tips and advice, information about money management, credit and debt management, household budget worksheets, personal budget forms and more.

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Budgeting Your Money: Tips, Articles and Links

Budgeting Articles

Budget & Net Worth Templates

Budgeting Links