I know a lot of people can feel me when I say this but it's very hard to maintain a budget. There are so many different things that are tempting us like fancy cars and nice expensive dinners and both parties.
Honestly, we have to get a grip on reality and kind of define what kind of life we want to struggle and drag by day to day, or do we want to be comfortable do we want to call the shots duty in our life, or do you want to be a victim and a slave to your debt I hope you pick the first one.
Some strategies and some things you can develop to help you manage your money better and to paint on your expenses.
1. Calculate Your Expenses
You cannot budget if you don't know how much you make it how much you spend. You have to write down all your expenses not only what the expense is? when is it due? And how much is it due every single month?
Fixed Expenses
What's important is to write your fixed expenses. These are things that typically won't change month over month your rent your credit card payments cable phone things of that nature.
You know they're gonna come in every single month on the same exact day and you know that for the most part, it should be pretty much the same price month after month.
Variable Expenses
Your gas the food you eat the clothes you have to buy toiletries you have to calculate how much you think you spend. Actually, I think it would be fun if you write down what you think you spend and then actually track it and see what you actually spend.
Once you have the estimations down use some sort of app to help you track personally I like using the Mint app it's really great at not only writing your budgets but tracking them down and it has a really great financial overview of all your expenses on credit cards.
Every single transaction that you're making on these cards once you link up all these accounts so it's a great way to kind of a full financial picture of your life but I'll have it to fly around to a million different websites that I used to do.
Some people feel like it's better for them to have the cash money and personally, I've never understood that. Typically I prefer to pay on a card just because you literally can track everything down whereas cash you may lose it and you may spend it and I even necessarily remember what you spent it on.
If you are one of those people who prefer the cash method then make sure you bring that little old-school checkbook with you and write down literally what you're spending as you finish spending. Don't say you'll remember because you won't.
So once you've identified your fixed expenses and once you've estimated and started to track your variable expenses you'll have a better idea of where your money is going and how to adjust.
2. Automate Expenses
what I personally like doing is to separate my accounts and automate everything. I have one card for all my fixed expenses and then I have a separate card for my variable expenses and when I have my paycheck.
I'll make sure that enough money plus a little bit of a buffer just in case gets put into one account. Some get thrown into my savings of course and then the rest gets put into another account.
Doing that gives you peace of mind because you don't have to calculate and worry about oh man money I spent too much now I have to go hustle somebody for some cash. Comfortably this is the money that I can spend.
The reason why I had to put my variable expenses and another one is that I can have a little bit more control over it so obviously what I would like to eat every single day at least I know that I could probably cook something as opposed to eating out. You have more control over what you do with that money so it's very important to keep them separated and automate that.
3. Automate your Savings
Don't trust yourself to just put the money in a savings account because you probably won't do it let's face it. I'm the same way. I'm not judging you it's really important to just make sure it gets done before you even see the money you don't even feel it.
Then you'll eventually reach a point where it's like you don't even remember about it it's just being said and you said it and you forget it then you can later use that money to invest and double up.
Do not be afraid of autosave and autopay I spoke to so many people who say oh I'm not gonna I'll go play and I'm just like why do you want your legs cut off? do you not want somewhere to live? don't let me get up?
It's a little bit of a weird thing to me because it's like you signed up for these expenses so why not pay them automatically it's one less thing you have to worry about you know you're gonna have to pay it eventually.
Make sure you just have better control of your money so that when it does come on the due date you're not afraid.
Typically people who say that are probably not the best with their money because if you've reached a point where you know that no matter what you can cover all your bills you wouldn't be too bothered about having autopay. If you disagree let me know below.
It's definitely a peace of mind for me because I know at the end of the month or every two weeks actually I can I budget frequently but periodically I'll check and make sure okay this looks a little bit too high what are we missing make sure everything has come out and that's it.
4. Budget Frequently
I personally chopped my budget I would say every two to three days especially after a weekend where I feel like I've spent a lot of money. It just gives you a reset it allows you to go back and see okay I spent a little bit much this week so I'm gonna cut back this next week and it constantly gives you the idea of how to be financially responsible. If you're not checking your budget it's very likely to get out of hand.
Of course, your car company's not gonna tell you to spend so much there will be real little hush you have to go check up on it so this is very important because this is the foundation to generational wealth personal financial independence financial freedom all that good stuff.
5. Track Your Budget
If you cannot track your budget you will never be able to reach a point where you are financially wealthy and I say that with confidence.
If you can't manage $1000 how are you gonna manage $100,000? It won't matter how much more you made you're always going to spend more.
Maybe you've already experienced that maybe you've gotten raises every single year and you're still feeling like you're living paycheck to paycheck.
You still don't have anything really saved up that's an indication that you need to start budgeting and eventually, you'll reach a point where you've budgeted it's almost it's practically second nature to you now, and then we can discuss the anti-budget.
