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Make a budget! Control where your money goes with a personal budget template. Creating a personal budget for the first time can be difficult. But don't be panic. We will help you to set your monthly budget.

Having control over your money is important, both for your financial well-being and for your peace of mind. Creating a budget with the help of a template can help you feel you have more control over your finances and allow you to save more money for your short or long term goals.

The following strategies can help you put together your personal budget form.

Set your goals

Make a list of all the financial goals that you want to meet in the short and long term. Ask yourself basic questions about why these goals are your priorities, how you plan to achieve them, and how urgently you need to see results. Short-term goals should not take more than a year to complete. 
For example, you may want to pay off your credit card debt or save for Christmas gifts. Long-term goals can take years to come true. A typical example would be to save for retirement or for your child's education. If you have no idea what your savings goals are, start by using the Merrill Edge Retirement Calculator to find out how much money you may need when you retire. For short-term goals, you can use the Bank Savings Calculator to help you figure out how much you have to save to reach your aim.

However, do not think that your goals have to remain unchanged. You can update your list when necessary and apply it to your budget worksheet.

Know your net income

The first step when creating a budget is to identify the incoming money, also called your income. Keep in mind, however, that it is easy to overstate what you can afford if you feel you have all your wages to spend. Remember to subtract your employer deductions for Social Security, taxes, 401 (k) plan and flexible expense account assignments when creating a budget slip. The final payment that comes into your home is called net income and is the sum of money you should use when creating a budget.

Create your plan

Start by dividing your net income into 2 broad categories of expenses: fixed expenses and variable expenses. Some of your expenses, such as mortgage, are fixed because they stay the same every month. Other expenses, such as entertainment or fuel for the car, are variables that change from month to month. You should record how much you spend on both fixed and variable expenses. You may consider using software tools for budgeting or a personal budget template to record and categorize your monthly expenses.

You can also divide your expenses into 3 basic categories: needs, savings, and desires. 

• Needs include fixed and variable costs that are essential for your daily well-being. 
• Savings include your emergency fund and retirement accounts. 
• Desires encompass everything else.

Keep track of your expenses

Not sure how much you spend per month on variable expenses like groceries or dining out? Tracking these expenses can be difficult. You can try to use an expense diary to help you do a little research work for this type of expense. Look for a small notebook and use it to write down every purchase you make each day for a month. Other options include saving all receipts and adding them to the end of the month or checking your Online Banking registration if you use a debit or credit card for most of your purchases. Once you have a good estimate of these expenses per month, incorporate them into your personal budget worksheet.

Customize your budget

The good thing about creating a budget is that you can customize it according to your own needs. After determining what separates for your fixed expenses, you can change the amount allocated to the variable items. The variable category gives you more flexibility over the amount you choose to spend and where and allows you to prioritize as you see fit. For example, you might decide that you will spend less on clothes per month to spend more money on the purchase of a new TV.

Create a budget

Follow these 4 simple steps when you start putting together your personal budget:

Write down your daily expenses

Record your daily expenses with anything you have on hand, either with a pen and paper or with an application on your smartphone.
Plan your next month's expenses and income, so they do not take you by surprise. Be sure to check with your partner before putting together the final list.

Look for ways to spend less.

Small savings can add up to a lot of money. If you add small savings at a time to your budget, you may be surprised to see how much extra money you have accumulated. For example, try shopping at a more affordable grocery store, buying generic brands or experimenting with cooking at home.

Find ways to increase your income.

Do you have a hobby or a talent? Any activity, from manual work to writing or teaching to play an instrument, can be a way to earn extra money. A great advantage of this strategy is that you can develop your full time parallel business if you ever lose your job.
Also read: 11 Secrets To Creating a Successful Budget: how to make a budget?

Perform a monthly check

Check your expenses every month and compare them with your personal budget schedule to see how things are going. If you find that it is common for you to move from the budget in some areas out of necessity, you should consider cutting cuts elsewhere to keep things in check.

Do you think starting a budget is hard? Do you procrastinate instead of making a budget? Have you ever ran from a room to avoid having a conversation about budgeting?

If so, you have come to the right place because this is not just any blog post – this is the ultimate blog post about how to create a budget. You know it is ultimate because we put a picture of Chuck Norris right here. And Chuck Norris doesn’t mess around.

That means it is time to get serious, cast aside your procrastination and fear, and conquer budgeting once and for all! This blog post will tell you exactly how to start your budget and how to succeed with it. It will help you devise a budget that works for YOU, based on what is going on in your life and the specific goals you’re working toward.

 Also Read: How to work without Stress

I’ll share my best tips and guide you through the process so you too can become a master at budgeting. Here’s what we’ll cover:
Sounds good? Okay, let’s get started…

What Is a Budget?

A budget is your plan for how much you will spend each month (or week) and on what. That’s it. Pretty simple, right? The tricky part is making sure your budget is accurate and that it’s working for you. That’s what we’ll focus on now.

How to start your budget?

Record your daily spending with anything that's handy, whether it's with a pen and paper or an app on your smartphone.

The psychology behind a budget

A budget is more than a tool to help you manage your money effectively; it's also an important guidepost to indicate that you're moving in the right direction financially. Done well, a budget can help you prepare for unanticipated expenses, and afford you the luxury of spending your money on the things that are most important to you. 

 Also Read: Defining What Success Means to You

On the other hand, budgeting is a painful penny-pinching exercise that sucks the joy out of life. Just joking. But if you do see it this way, then you are bound to become frustrated and discouraged.There are real benefits to training yourself to think of budgeting as a constructive plan for spending wisely that encourages you to indulge now and then.

Here are 11 steps to make the process as smooth and painless as possible.

1. Decide to Start a Budget

If you are reading this article, chances are that you have already made the decision to begin a working budget. Congratulations! For many people, myself included, this is the hardest part. Read on to get started with next steps.

2. Know How Much You Have

If you have savings, checking accounts, investment accounts, or any other financial instruments, you will want to know how much money is in each account as well as the interest rates and expenses of each one. Make note of this information as it will become important in determining your net worth and the best use of your capital in the future.

3. Know How Much You Make

For some people, this is easier than others. Those on a salaried pay scale can easily find their monthly income. For hourly employees or those who work in a business where income may rise and fall unpredictably, this can be much more difficult. The most important consideration, regardless of how you earn your monthly income, is to determine the average monthly amount of income that you receive. A good way to do this, if you receive irregular income, is to average out the last 6 to 12 months of recurring income and use that figure. If you want to be extra conservative, you can choose the lowest monthly amount you have earned in the last year, which will hopefully provide you with a worst case scenario.

4. Know What You Owe

Determining your monthly recurring debt payments should be your next step. This should be fairly simple to do, as long as you have stopped incurring additional debt in the short term. If you haven’t been able to break your dependence on credit cards, that’s okay, as building a budget will act as a first step for your next financial priority which should be getting out of high interest consumer debt.

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To find out what your monthly recurring debt payments are, calculate the total amount owed on each debt account as well as the minimum monthly payment. This includes car loans, mortgages, credit card debt, student loans, and all other debt that your family pays on a monthly basis.

This will provide you with the first few line items in your budget, and will allow you to determine your net worth.

5. Determine Your Net Worth

Once you know how much money you have and how much you owe, you can easily determine your net worth. Just subtract what you owe from what you have, and you will derive a number. This number will tell you the value of your financial resources. For me, this number was an eye opener. When I built my first budget, I had a negative net worth. I assume this is fairly common in America, especially for young people just starting out.

6. Determine Your Average Recurring Monthly Expenses

This can be the hard part for many people. The best way to determine your monthly expenses is to make a stack of household expenses for a month. Keep your receipts, your utility bills, and any other expense that arises during a one month period, and divide these bills into categories. The categories can be as general or as specific as you want them to be. I keep my categories extremely general (automotive/household), whereas you may prefer specific itemized categories such as (car wash/electric bill). Either way works well, as long as you determine an average amount of expenses for each category.

7. Enter this Information into a Database

It used to be, if you had a budget, you had an old school paper ledger. Things have changed for the better for all of us new budgeters. Software programs like Microsoft Excel and online budgeting tools like Mint, You Need a Budget, and Mvelopes have made it much easier to take the results of your first few steps, and develop a highly adjustable and sustainable long term budget. I use Microsoft Excel for my own personal budget, because it allows a greater deal of flexibility than sites like Mint. However, many people swear by online budgeting sites, and whichever path you choose will ultimately help you build greater wealth and greatly help keep you out of financial trouble.

8. Look at the Bottom Line

After entering all of the above information, you will discover the most important number in your budgeting process – the bottom line. This number will tell you whether you are overspending or under-spending. Ideally, during this step you will find that you are living within your means, and maybe will even have a little left over on a monthly basis. On the flip side, you may determine you must make adjustments to your monthly expenses in order to live within your means.

Also Read: A Guide to Building Your Brand Successfully 

9. Make Adjustments Accordingly

If the bottom line of your budget proved that you are overspending your monthly income, you will come to the most difficult step – making cuts to your monthly expenses. There are tons of resources here on OnlineLivingBlog that will teach you to be smarter with the income you have, help you cut your recurring monthly expenses, and establish your financial boundaries for personal budget planning.

10. Adjust Categories Based on Reality

Life is full of surprises. Food gets more expensive, gas prices rise, and rent can get hiked when you least expect it. Each time you notice inflation creeping up on your expense categories, get a raise at work and begin to earn more money, or worse, suffer a financial setback like a pay cut or job loss, you must adjust your categorical expenses based on the realities of the world around you.

11. Pay Yourself First

Depending where you are in your budget, based on your bottom line, you may want to add a few extra line items to your monthly expenses. These may be monthly dispersal's to a savings account like Capital One 360 or Ally Bank, Roth IRA, 529 college savings plan, or other savings vehicle. Moving money into savings and treating it like a recurring expense will allow you to slowly build up your savings without feeling like you must make these deposits from what is left at the end of the month.

If you don’t have a budget, now’s the time to create one. By following the above 11 easy steps, you’ll be on your way to financial freedom and building wealth for the future.
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