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I Wasn't Paying Attention: Where Does My Money Go and How Can I Get Some Back? - Part 1 | |||||
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I Wasn't Paying Attention: Where Does My Money Go and How Can I Get Some Back? - Part 1 by: Janet L. Hall Tracking, planning, and * overhalling * your hard earned money can help you reach any financial goals that you have, help you in getting out of debt, and help you gain back control of your money, your future, and your life. Dawn Rivers Baker of WAHM & Mompreneur has a great series, * Financial Management 101 * ( http://www.wahm- mompreneur.com/finmanage.html ) in which she writes, * Managing cash flow is the simple matter of projecting cash receipts and needed cash outlays within a certain period of time - a week, a month, a quarter, a year - ... Good cash management consists very basically of three things: knowing when you need money, knowing where that money is going to come from and knowing where you can get money from if you fall short. With good cash management, you may find yourself with a bit of money left over when you have paid your bills. * To assist you, in this often overlooked area of one's life, I have found several generic cash flow/budget worksheets on the Internet, one in which you can enter your figures and it will calculate everything for you. I have listed those links at the end of this article, but please keep reading before bouncing over to them! Just remember that these worksheets are generic and it is up to you to customize them to your lifestyle and habits. Listed below are the percentages (based on net spendable income, after tithing and taxes), according to Larry Burkett (http://www.cfcministry.org ), that you should ONLY be spending in each category of your budget: Housing - 38% Food - 12% Automobile(s) - 15% Insurance - 5% Debts - 5% Entertainment & Recreation - 5% Clothing - 5% Savings - 5% Medical Expenses - 5% Miscellaneous - 5% To meet the 8% that you should allocate for school/child care, if needed, you will have to make adjustments of the above categories by an equal amount. To have a true sense of where you're spending your money daily, keep a daily expense log for at least one month. Enter in everything that you purchase DAILY! Even that .25 cent pack of gum or mints. Get a little notebook that you keep with you and just do IT! This will allow you to see where you can cut back and/or start saving. For instance, if you buy a newspaper everyday at .50 cents a pop, and a $1 for the Sunday paper, you've just spent $208 for a year of reading what? DO you read the whole paper or just the home or sports section? If you read the paper at home, does it start to pile up causing more clutter and more of your time to dispose of it? Where else can you get this SAME information? Maybe on the Internet (if you're reading this, you are probably already paying for Internet service). At the library? Can you read your co-workers? Do you also watch the television news? How important is it for you to read the newspaper everyday and see $208 go out of YOUR pocket every year? How much * bad * news do you really want to read and listen to everyday? Be selective! Remember how much your time is worth! This and your other daily habits are what I want you to take a STRONG look at and see what you can * OverHall and Balance *, see what you are willing to give up, what you don't really need, or what costly habit you can change or cut back. As Deborah Fowles, financial writer of about.com, stated in her article * Financial Planning *: * To those of you who think you know where your money goes without keeping detailed records, I issue this challenge: keep track of every cent you spend for one month. I promise you'll be surprised and perhaps shocked by how much some of your "small" expenditures add up to. For an eye-opening illustration, try the American Express * Savings or Spending Big Calculator at http://www6.americanexpress.com/401k/scripts/saveBig.asp Enter the cost and frequency of a habit or indulgence and how many years you expect it to continue. Click a button and see not only how much you'll spend over the specified time period, but also how much that same amount would grow to if you invested it at various rates of return. Mind-boggling! * You might think all of this is too much work, am I right? Well let me ask you, how much work will it be or take when you are retired and have no savings, no investments, no assets, no money, no NOTHING because you didn't control your cash flow? If you're already retired, how hard might you be struggling because you aren't paying attention to your money? As Dr. Lair Ribeiro, author of * Success Is No ACCIDENT * wrote, * If you go on doing what you've always done, you'll go on getting what you've always got. * STOP procrastinating! Get your priorities in line! Get focused! OverHall your cash flow so you can stop worrying about money, stop living from pay check to pay check, stop being late on your bills. Work on balancing your cash flow so you won't have problems or troubles NOW or in your later years. TIP: The best time to work on this is when you are paying your bills. Business Owners-The Small Buisness Development Center in your neighborhood will be happy to help you for FREE with your business cash flow! Websites of interest: ~~ Basic Budget Worksheet at http://financialplan.about.com/finance/financialplan/ library/blbudget.htm ~~ Budget Worksheet http://www.moneyminded.com/incomego/start/a7budw15.ht m ~~ List of Small Business Development Centers http://www.nttc.edu/assist/sbdc.html ~~ Cash Flow Worksheet http://www.e-analytics.com/fpa2.htm ~~ Managing your Business Cash Flow Worksheet http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/lifestyles ext/ p06_0100.htm ~~ FREE Exl-Plan Business Shareware to prepare comprehensive financial projecitons, budgets, and business plans http://www.planware.org/exldown.htm Smiles, not Piles, Janet L. Hall The Organizing Wizard, Janet L. Hall, is a Professional Organizer, Speaker, and Author. She is the owner of OverHall Consulting, and Organizing By Phone. Subscribe to her FREE organizing newsletter at http://www.overhall.com/newsletter.htm or visit her web site at http://www.overhall.com Copyright ( C ) 1999, 2000, 2001 by OverHall Consulting P.O. Box 263, Port Republic, MD 20676 All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce, copy, or distribute so long as this copyright notice and full information about contacting the author is attached. About the Author The Organizing Wizard, Janet L. Hall, is a Professional |
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