Personal Budget

A personal budget, yes the tedious exercise of working out personal monthly income and expenses. When did you last do a personal budget?

There are many tools to help us track our monthly expenditure. Banks for example categorise our payments. Make the most of these tools.

Prepare a simple spreadsheet of income less expenses. Spilt expenses up into essential, other and luxury. This exercise will help identify what the minimum amount you can live on. If hard financial times hit us in the face, our essential budget can kick in and other expenses will go on hold.

Budget to pay off all your debt. Implement a plan to resolve all debt and to stay out of debt.

Plan to save during good times. Over the next year or two, try to save at least three times your monthly salary. This savings will give you three months of recovery in hard times.

The two hours you spend today thrashing out a personal budget could save you years of hardship. Give it a try.