Use something to track your budget
I recently helped a friend install and setup Quicken as she had never prior to employed a spending budget or tracked their income and wasting. They live paycheck to paycheck and I just know they could do better if they had the info about their own habits and also the power to change them.
The nice thing about quicken is that you are able to download your transactions from your bank so manual entry is frequently not necessary. You will have to update investing categories when in the while if the bank guesses wrong or guesses practically nothing, but overall its a large time saver.
The appear on her face when she figured out how much she was shelling out on a couple of key categories was priceless. Her guess for each category was WAY under what the truth was, by hundreds of dollars. This type of difficulty is typical. We don’t often think those tiny trips to the store will add as much as such big numbers and then wonder why there’s practically nothing left over at the end with the month. After seeing the quicken reports for just two months she was able to streamline her budget and stick to a plan that allowed them to make a serious turnaround. Now they have extra funds at the end on the month to put toward outstanding credit card debt, start saving for college (they already have retirement through work), and typically have some peace of mind.
The alternative is to spend a bunch of money on stuff like jiffy steamer and graco double stroller and shoe storage bench. But having all that stuff won’t help you manage your finances and keep you with a good safety cushion of cash.
Several people are afraid of budgets and would rather get a root canal. But she can honestly say that with a little guidance from quicken she is now addicted to watching those numbers and gaining control over their spending.
If you have proficiency inside a program like quicken share that know-how with someone who needs it. Be sure they’re ready to receive your details, but when you’ve trained them you’ll have literally saved their futures. It’s up to them to maintain the discipline, but they will now have the tools as well as the information to be financially secure.
Filed under: John's Message