Create a Budget
Start to Budget
After you track your income and expenses you are ready to make decisions and create a budget.
First: if your expenses are greater than your income make changes to your expenses (If you can change income, then go for it).
Second: Decide, what you want your money to be spent on? Do your expenses line up with your values? For example, if I don’t have enough money for a nice vacation with my family I could stop eating out two times a week and save enough money for that vacation in two months.
What to Budget
Expenses! Limit yourself from bad habits or unnecessary purchases and save that money for more important things.
Live the life you want to live.
Savings
Saving your money can be a significant part of your budget.
Don’t know where to start?
Make a plan to obtain enough money to live on for six to twelve months. Having that much savings would help you feel comfortable in an economic or family crisis.
Emergency Fund
How much money should I have in an emergency fund?
6 months of savings is the recommended amount to have stored away in case of an unexpected economic family crisis.
Budget Templates
If you track your money yourself I recommend finding a template (Why reinvent the wheel? You can modify it if you like later). This will help you create a budget and manage it much easier. Excel, Numbers, and Google Sheets have free budget templates that can make budgeting a lot easier.
We recommend Google Sheets out of all the spreadsheet options because of the capabilities to share the spreadsheet with others.
Click on the icon for Google Sheet budget templates. Right click on the sheet and click “Make a Copy” to make a private version on your own Google Drive.
Budget Software
If you want extra assistance in budgeting, we recommend Quicken. This software was made to make budgeting and other parts of personal finance easier.
