Budgets & Tips to Creating your Own
Happy Monday!
I recently hired a money mentor to help me feel more confident in understanding my numbers when it comes to my personal and professional life. One of the most simple things we started with was just analyzing my past 3 months of spending. I was SHOCKED once we started preparing a budget at what my actual monthly break even number is to live VS what I thought it was.
If you're feeling similar, here are some tips to get started:
1. Decide your GOALS
Examples: Are you wanting to be debt free, simply organize your finances, save up for something major etc
2. List out your INCOME
If you're like me where it fluctuates a ton, this can be difficult but do your best!
3. List out all your EXPENSES
My gal had me log into my Chase account and pull my last 3 monthly statements which was helpful. I also would "remember" things throughout the week and add them as they came to me like my yoga membership, Stuart the Hounds pet insurance etc.
Some of these will be fixed numbers and some will vary such as groceries/gasoline but you can reflect on past months to get a better idea of where you're at in each category and I like to guesstimate on the higher end to allow more wiggle room.
4. Organize and Prioritize
This is where you can set it up for what you like and need.
We created mine by personal MUST spend per month to live and then personal with wiggle room for things like meals + drinks out, shopping etc. Then I did the same with my business. I also am evaluating anywhere I can cut costs. I don't really spend on a lot of leisurely items BUT once I saw how much, for example, I spend on going out for food + drinks, I'll make a new goal number of what I'd like to stick within monthly and spend accordingly. You can also decide if you're someone who wants to set this up weekly/monthly etc. I opted for monthly.
We took this further to list out my big life goals and what I'll need for that such as adopting a child, helping my mom once she retires etc. THEN I work with my financial advisor to dive into setting up my investments, planning and on.
Bonus: You can absolutely build this out yourself but if you don't want to, search around Etsy as there are lots of affordable, already created spreadsheets like this one!
ENJOY!
Let me know if you have questions:)
