What budgeting tips do you live by?

General Discussion
21

@sthom, @kellyfromkeene (and everyone else), here’s a link to watch the video!

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22

thank you for sharing it was very learning

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23

Yes, that was interesting! Thanks for sharing the video link- I’m glad I was able to see it.

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24

I’m watching and enjoying the program now. More of these on other topics would be great. Thank you for offering this content.

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25

And you get to see and hear Dear Penny. Excellent.

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26

@sthom There are more in the works!

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27

Sounds good, @will . The moderator was hilarious when she kept calling Robin, Penny (I’m no better; I call her Dear Penny). The moderator offered good tips as well; I would love to see her broadcasts but I’m west of the Mississippi River (K stations, not W stations).

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28

So many people say they have a budget but they usually look at it the wrong way.

If your monthly income is $2500 dollars, they say their budget is $2500 dollars. That is a recipe for FAILURE!

Your BUDGET should be as low as possible from your income. People say, well my rent, car, this, that…

But, when they took on that debt, they used the failed budget of their total income. Example, I need a car, my bills are $2000 so I can afford a car and insurance payment totaling $500 on my $2500 monthly income.

So this is how people get maxed out, living month to month, check to check. Its not always that simple but my point is, don’t look at your income as your budget.

Create a budget, based on your income, you can live comfortably with, and make decisions based on that BUDGET and not your actual income.

I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my recurring bills and balances. I have a budgeting app on my phone and use Credit Karma to watch everything.

Also turn on payment and purchase alerts for all your cards and accounts. It alerts you immediately if a purchase is made and you have a record of it in case you lose a reciept before you can add it in your tracking method. Help quickly stop fraud also, it has helped me 2 times from people using RFID scanners to steal my card information.

If you change how you look at a budget, it helps a lot. You can calculate in your financial comfort level.

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