|
10 Easy Maintenance Tips vs Piling on the Chaos
10 Easy Maintenance Tips vs Piling on the Chaos
By Eve Abbott, Excerpted from her new book,
How to Do Space Age Work with a Stone Age Brain TM
Whether you are in your own business or an employee (or neither) -- if you have a family and a home...
What Is Ayurvedic Medicine
According to a new survey carried out by Alliance & where ID_NUM=9270; Leicester, one in five small business owners view tax as their greatest concern. The Chancellor has announced in his last budget that companies with profits below 10,000...
What To Pay When You Can't Pay Everything
What To Pay When You Can't Pay Everything By Terry Rigg With ever increasing consumer debt more of us are finding ourselves robbing Peter to pay Paul each month. We go through our bills and find that the money just won't stretch far enough to...
Whole-Brained Grandparenting: The Baby Gift
Expecting your first grandchild? I remember when I received the phone call that my firstborn was expecting his first. My head and my heart were full. I remembered back when we had placed that phone calls to our parents. I had expected hoots and...
Your Consumer Rights
If you have ever fallen behind on your debts you already know that dealing with your creditors can be a hassle. Sometimes it can be downright humiliating. It doesn't have to be that way.
With millions of people experiencing financial...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Why Have A Budget Analysis
Let's start by defining a "Budget Analysis". This is simply a breakdown of your budget (income, bills & expenses) showing how much money you have coming in and how much you have going out. It will show how your budget category percentages compare with what is recoginized as the ideal percentages. The most important aspect of the Budget Analysis is the recomendations for improvement.
The first part of your analysis will list your income and breakdown your bills and expenses by category. At Budget Stretcher I use only four categories, Housing, Other Bills, Household Expenses, and Savings. The three expense categories allow 30% of your take home for each category with 10% going to savings.
Next, your expenses percentages will be compared to the ideal percentages that will show you what areas of your budget need improvement. The percentages above are simply targets. If you exceed the recommended percentage in one category but you do not exceed 100% of your take home pay for all categories, then you would not normally have a problem.
The recommendations for improvement are based on sound financial practices. There isn't anything complicated about this, it is pretty much 2+2=4. However, there are some tricks that can be recommended to help make the figures add up a little easier. As an example, if you have say 40% of your income
going to the Other Bills category because of credit cards, it may be recommended that you try consolidating your credit cards to lower your payments. This can be done by either a consolidation loan, home equity loan or by using an existing credit card to pay off all of the others.
I would recommend a Budget Analysis for anyone that is having problems with paying their bills or anyone that consistantly pays their bills late. Also, if you have problems organizing your bills or would like to reduce your debt, a budget analysis may be helpful.
The next step is follow-up. No matter how thorough your budget analysis, you are going to have questions along the way. It is important that whoever is doing your budget analysis are available to answer these questions for as long as you need the help.
A Budget Analysis is not the answer to all of your problems. It is going to take time, organization and discipline to get your finances in order but it can point you in the right direction.
About the Author
Terry Rigg is the author of Living Within Your Means - The Easy Way http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/ebookadpage.html and editor of The FREE Budget Stretcher Newsletter and Budget Stretcher web site http://www.homemoneyhelp.com. He has 25 years of experience counseling individuals and families concerning their personal finances.
|
|
|
|
|
Kiplinger.com - Timely, Trusted Personal Finance Advice, Financial ... |
Investing, personal finance, calculators and financial advice. |
www.kiplinger.com |
  |
Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine - Your Guide to Making Money ... |
Subscibe to Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine to help you manage your finances. Achieve your financial goals and objectives with help from our ... |
www.kiplinger.com |
  |
Personal finance advice, news - CNNMoney |
News & advice on retirement planning, college saving, taxes, mortgages, autos, real estate, investing and more from CNNMoney.com. |
money.cnn.com |
  |
Business, financial, personal finance news - CNNMoney |
Combines practical personal finance advice, calculators and investing tips with business news, stock quotes, and financial market coverage from the editors ... |
money.cnn.com |
  |
Personal Finance, Personal Finances, and Financial Advice - Forbes.com |
Personal Finance - Get financial advice and information from Forbes.com. |
www.forbes.com |
  |
SmartMoney.com — Investing, Saving and Personal Finance |
SmartMoney has daily stock and mutual fund recommendations, hourly market updates, personal finance investing research tools and advice, ... |
www.smartmoney.com |
  |
Personal Finance Home (Personal Finance: Personal Finance ... |
Links to articles covering a range of topics where monetary planning is or should be involved. |
www.smartmoney.com |
  |
Personal Finance - Front Page |
Read the details in Personal Finance this Saturday. Also in this weekend's edition:; You should take financial services companies' marketing material with a ... |
www.persfin.co.za |
  |
Get stock quotes, market news, rates, and more - Netscape Money ... |
Market News. • Market News. • News Search. Financial Planning. • Finance Calculators. • Saving for College. • Personal Finance ... |
money.netscape.cnn.com |
  |
globeandmail.com: Personal Finance |
Personal Finance. Home · National · British Columbia · Prairies · Ontario · Quebec · Atlantic · Politics · World · Americas · Europe · Asia-Pacific ... |
www.theglobeandmail.com |
  |
Personal Finance - MSNBC.com |
Answer Desk: Submit your question about personal finance or the world of business ... Personal Finance. • Learn more about RSS ... |
www.msnbc.msn.com |
  |
Personal Finance Newsletter |
7600 Leesburg Pike, West Building Suite 300 • Falls Church, VA 22043 703-394-4931 (ph) • 703-905-8100 (fax) • personalfinance@kci-com.com ... |
www.pfnewsletter.com |
  |
Personal Finance Advice - Personal Finance Management - Personal ... |
Tips and stories for managing your personal finances. |
www.marketwatch.com |
  |
CNBC.com: Personal Finance |
Investing home page features investment tools like stock quotes, charts, a portfolio manager and much more. Plus market news and financial commentary from ... |
moneycentral.msn.com |
  |
Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Business: Personal ... |
Knowing retirement, health plans can help avert disaster · At one firm, financial crisis crushed 401(k)s, insurance · Personal finance news briefs ... |
www.dallasnews.com |
  |
Morningstar: Personal Finance |
Sharpen your personal finance and investing skills with Morningstar. Access articles covering stocks, mutual funds, bonds, retirement, 401(k)s and 529 plans ... |
www.morningstar.com |
  |
Fool.com: Personal Finance |
Personal Finance - The Motley Fool exists to educate, amuse, and enrich the individual investor; to prove to you that the best person to manage your money ... |
www.fool.com |
  |
Fool.com: Investing, Stock Research, and Personal Finance |
Expert advice on picking stocks, investing for retirement, and dealing with life's major personal finance decisions. |
www.fool.com |
  |
Telegraph | Money |
Market news from the Telegraph newspaper online. Includes money product finders. |
www.telegraph.co.uk |
  |
Compare Prices and Read Reviews on Personal Finance at Epinions.com |
Epinions has the best comparison shopping information on Personal Finance. Compare prices from across the web and read reviews from other consumers on ... |
www.epinions.com |
  |