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| Credit Answers > Debt Resources > Personal Budgeting > Creating A Budget |
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Creating A Personal Budget
Many of us fail to see the relationship between budgeting and saving. Budgeting is a process that starts by setting spending targets that help you to stay within your means of
paying for the bills. A personal budget is useful in controlling personal expenses.
Reasons for having a personal budget usually change over time. In our 20s, we focus on repaying debts or saving for a down payment on a home. We may want to budget in order to set
aside several thousand dollars for a trip around the world. In our 30s and 40s, budgeting is important to help pay for our children's living, college expenses or for a debt settlement negotation. By the time we enter
our 50s, saving for retirement becomes a major financial goal.
Budgeting is the cornerstone of saving. No personal budget often means an inability or unwillingness to identify a potential source of regular savings. A personal budget imposes some
discipline on adhering to a savings plan.
Some important steps in setting up a personal budget include:
Select a period to measure.
A monthly budget often works best. Most of us pay our rent, mortgage, and utility bills monthly. It is also the period over which many of us get paid. If you are paid every two
weeks, you can add the amounts to determine a monthly figure.
Calculate net cash flow for the period.
Your personal net cash flow subtracts your cash expenses (cash outflows) from your cash income (cash inflows). If you charge
with your credit card, add those charges to your cash expenses. Using your credit card is only a means of postponing cash outflows. While you're at it, be sure to add the little
items, like those $4 lattes and video store trips. These items easily add up to $100 or more in a month.
Keep records.
Accurate records will help you to keep a history of several budgeting periods. You can string together 12 months of budgets to create an annual budget. You can use your budget
records to compare actual and budgeted spending. The differences in actual and budgeted spending are called variances. Be as precise in your record keeping as you can afford
to be.
Monitor and review.
Your records help you to compare how well you budget. The key is to identify positive budget variances where your actual cash outflows are less than your budgeted cash outflows.
These variances are a source of funds to save and invest. For example, if you budget $1,500 in monthly cash outflows but routinely only have cash outflows of $1,400, you have
identified a source of savings worth $100 a month.
Save for an emergency fund.
As you gradually find you can save each month, you may want to first set aside enough for an emergency fund. An emergency fund consists of three to six months of savings. An
emergency fund is also called a rainy-day fund and should be used only to pay for unanticipated financial setbacks. These setbacks may include losing a job, becoming ill, or
suffering the death of a family member.
Invest regularly.
A personal budget may have led you to identify a way to save $100 a month. Investing this extra $100 every month lets you take advantage of dollar-cost averaging. Dollar-cost
averaging is a basic principle of investing. Studies consistently show that, over time, dollar-cost averaging buys shares at a cheaper price than if you attempt to time your
purchases. In addition, your regular contributions fuel the compounded growth of your investments.
Since your emergency fund serves a vital purpose, you want to have access to the funds. At the same time, you want to earn interest on these funds. As a result, you should plan to
invest it in only the most liquid and safe investments. These investments include CDs, savings deposits, and money market accounts. All of these instruments are insured by the
FDIC for up to $100,000 per depositor per institution. Money market mutual funds are not insured by the FDIC. However, money market funds seldom drop in value because of the high
quality of their investments.
An effective investing technique for your emergency fund is laddering. First, you divide your investments into roughly equal amounts. Next, you deposit these amounts in short-term
CDs of different maturities. The length of maturity terms should be spaced at intervals that don't jeopardize your access to at least some of your emergency fund at any given
time.
For example, you may wish to divide $4,000 of a $5,000 fund into four equal parts, keeping $1,000 in an account you can access immediately. Next, you may consider investing
$1,000 each in a 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month CD. As each CD matures, you extend, or roll over, the CD for one year. This allows you to establish a stream of CD investments that
mature every three months. If you ever need more than $1,000 of your fund, the longest you would have to wait (unless you paid a fee for early redemption) would be three
months.
The above information is educational and should not be interpreted as financial advice. For advice that is specific to your circumstances, you should consult a financial or tax
adviser.
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