Budget Budget Budget
Personal budget planning is an important part of keeping a handle on your finances. Because there is so much turmoil in today’s economy, maintaining a healthy personal budget is more vital than ever. Crafting a personal budget begins with determining how money comes in, and how money goes out, but there is a lot more detail that has to go into the personal budget planning process if you want to get the most out of it.
When you consider your income, for example, you should have both a monthly budget amount and a monthly actual amount so you can make sure that you are earning the income that you are expecting. Your income should include not only standard wages and bonuses, but also income from interest, income from investments and income from miscellaneous sources. Budget for all “money in” scenarios, including tax refunds for example.
Because taxes are an important part of your finances, you should also track your income taxes and other taxes in your personal budget planning process. Track your federal income taxes, state income taxes, local income taxes, Medicare taxes and social security taxes by tracking both a budgeted amount and an actual amount each month. These numbers fluctuate, so make sure to track them.
Next, when it comes to tracking your expenses for personal budget planning, there are a lot of categories that you need to consider. You need to consider your mortgage payment or rent, homeowner’s or renter’s insurance, property taxes, home repairs, HOA dues, maintenance costs and home improvements, for example. Utilities that need to be considered include electricity, water and sewer, natural gas or oil, cell phone and land line telephone. Food costs should not only include grocery bills, but also snacks, lunches, eating out, and whatever you spend at the vending machine.
There are also family obligations to budget for that may normally be forgotten, such s child support, daycare, baby sitting and alimony payments. If you have to contribute to your health insurance, don’t forget about monthly health, vision and dental premiums. You also need to consider un-reimbursed medical expenses like co-pays.
There are other expenses to include in your budget planning, including transportation costs like car payments, gasoline, auto maintenance and repair fees, oil, auto insurance and other methods of transportation like bus and taxi costs. If you have debt like loans, student loans or credit cards, or you have debt payments, then you need to include these as well.
If you intend on saving a specific amount of money every month, it would be wise to treat it like a bill, making it a mandatory expense every month rather than something that you remember to do at the end of the month when you’re low on cash. Don’t forget occasional expenses in your budget, like entertainment and recreation costs, subscriptions, vacations, pets, clothing and other investments. If you leave something out of your budget during the personal budget planning process you may end up with no money to cover it at the end of the month.
Photo Credits: 1
Originally posted 2008-11-28 05:01:12. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Related Articles -
Breaking Down Budgeting A personal budget is simply a spending plan. Before you work on personal budget planning you need to have a good idea of where and how your money is being spent. It can be a tedious process, but it can also be a true eye opener if you are not...... -
4 Ways To Get Out of Debt /caption] For thousands of people, the specter of debt is an all too real problem that affects not only their financial life, but the rest of their lives as well. However, there are steps that can be taken to get yourself out of debt, reasonably quickly, despite how much you...... -
How Much Money Do You Really Spend? Overspending is an enormous problem for Americans right now and the sad truth is, many of us do not even know we are doing it. If you are finding it hard to make ends meet at the end of the month, or you are desperately waiting for that next paycheck...... -
Do You Avoid Personal Budget Planning? /caption] One of the things that can make your life easier, even though it sounds complicated, is personal budget planning. If you're one of the fortunate few who never has to worry about running out of money no matter how many extra expenses might crop up or how much extra...... -
4 Tips for College Students Budgets /caption] If you are a college student, then your primary focus is probably set on your studies and trying to maintain your education so that you will be benefited in the future. Unfortunately, one of the things that you may not be putting enough consideration into is how you are......
Related Sites -
Creating a Budget 1 Creating a budget may not initially sound like something that you are going to want to do. Just because it is not one of the most exciting things in the world for you to do, that does not mean that it is not vitally important in making sure that your...... -
How to Build a Zero-based Budget A zero based budget is a budget where every dollar you earn is assigned to a category in your budget. Your income minus your expenses equals zero – zero based budget. The idea sounds very simple, and it is, but the real value in creating and following a zero-based budget...... -
It's Time for Some Personal Budget Planning Tips Personal budget planning is an important part of keeping a handle on your finances. Because there is so much turmoil in today's economy, maintaining a healthy personal budget is more vital than ever. Crafting a personal budget begins with determining how money comes in, and how money goes out, but...... -
Subscriber Swap Saturday With No Debt Plan Happy Saturday my friends. I want to introduce you to a fantastic blog called No Debt Plan. My friend Kevin runs this blog and has a been doing a great service to personal finance readers for some time called the Subscriber Swap Saturday. No Debt Plan is about getting and...... -
Back to the basics of saving money This article is part of an ongoing series called Money Saving Monday. Each Monday, I share tips and techniques you can use to start saving money. There are of course many ways to save money. I also firmly believe that saving is the foundation for building wealth. I've......