There are three critical pieces of the puzzle when it comes to life goals, budgeting and a spending plan. The budget needs to be aligned with your life goals. A spending plan is needed that’s aligned with the budget. Finally, you need to know how much money is really available for spending at any given time. If any piece is missing, your budget and life goals are at risk.
Reading, writing and arithmetic. Your kids can finish elementary school knowing how to communicate effectively and how to budget.
What matters when it comes to budgeting is keeping the brain nimble to make the budgeting experience a little less painful and a lot more productive.
Having a budget and a spending plan is a good idea in general. However, there is another benefit of having a budget and spending plan. You’ll have the information you need to get back on track if you are the victim of identity theft, a cyber attack, stolen credit card information, an internet service interruption or a job loss.
Hobbies are a fun way to put the “waste not want not” principal into action. Crafts. Cooking. Preserve a favorite pair of jeans you don’t want to toss out.
When bill payments are missed, financial woes can be brewing. You will incur late fees. Your credit score can be impacted.
An interest rate hike by the Bank of Canada and a dramatic spike in the cost of groceries and gas makes it more difficult to make ends meet. Create a long term budget that factors in what you expect to pay for what you buy.
Have goals in the budget that mean something to you. Listen to the voice in your head. Be in a positive frame of mind when creating a budget. Build in the “oops factor”.
It’s important to have short term goals that are aligned with long-term goals. If you want to have a down payment to buy a home 5 years or 10 years from now, you should have some short-term goals for how money will be spent and saved.
When I shopped for a family of 5, I saved $2,500 a year or more by pitching the habit of convenience shopping.
