Many of us have either created or attempted to create an effective budget at some point. For those of us who have, budgeting or “good money management” is probably one of the most difficult things we face in dealing with our finances. What we need to realize is that successful budgeting is key to good […]
Staying on the right track with how we handle our money is important to our financial health. Our motivation to improve our finances is what gets us started on the right track, but it’s our habits…good money habits, that will keep us there. As we know, habits can be good or bad and depending on […]
When we take a close, hard and honest look at the things that we consider to be needs and wants, the choices and decisions may not, and in some cases, will not be easy. The things we thought were needs and are realized as wants, now have to be put off until we get ourselves […]
First, it is important to understand that needs and wants aren’t the same. As we read that sentence, we say to ourselves…everyone knows that! Again, while we might know this intellectually, there is a good chance that we’re not completely sincere with ourselves with regards to the things we buy. When it comes to our […]
Part of our journey to financial well-being is the principal of spending less than we earn. And although there is no single road to financial well-being, that one principal is what sets us up to not only begin creating our wealth, but to also keep what wealth we attain. That principal holds true whether we […]
If our bills are greater than our income, it’s safe to say…we’re in trouble! It’s when we find ourselves in situations like this, that we’ll only keep adding to our debt whenever we spend more money than we make. The first thing we need to do is we need to get our spending under control. […]
Living below our means is the basis of financial freedom. Once we learn to live below our means, we can stop getting into debt, begin paying off any debt we currently have and start putting money aside for saving and investing. If we’re living above our means it is going to mean more stress, more […]
Even though you might develop your financial style early, it can change with time or due to circumstances. It isn’t uncommon for somebody who is undergone significant life change to adopt a very different relationship with money. Our personal relation to emotional interaction with money is probably the most crucial relationship in the life of […]
Believe it or not, much of your money habits are affected by outside influences, like the media, television, radio, newspapers, magazines, etc. Each year, companies spend billions of dollars in advertising and marketing, all for the sake of getting you to spend your money to buy their latest and greatest product or service right NOW! […]
To help create a spending budget that’s not just sensible, but also effective, you need to start by calculating your income. Once you’ve calculated your income, then you can list your expenses by first making a list of your fixed expenses such as rent or mortgage payments, automobile payments, insurance premiums, etc. After that, you […]