Personal Budgeting: An Imperative
Please note it is your responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness and usefulness of any information, opinion or advice contained in the content below.By Michael Russell
Budgeting is a basic part of accountancy.
Nations, states, cities, towns and every incorporated company have budgets. Every private company, or other commercial entity, worth its salt has a formal budget. So why is it that the vast majority of people don’t use a formal budget in their private lives?
They do budget of course. We all do in one way or another. But very, very few people have a good enough memory to successfully budget informally – that is, without writing it down. And it’s when we forget to allow for some expense that we get into trouble. We get into debt. Isn’t that just about the worst feeling in the world – to be in unplanned debt?
To be poor is a sad experience – it’s a state of mind. To be broke is an uncomfortable experience – but it’s a temporary condition. To be in unplanned debt can be gut wrenching. And generally speaking, unplanned debt is just plain carelessness.
Why then does it happen? Simply because in the days before computers and calculators budgeting was a boring and time-consuming task. There was an awful lot of adding up to do and the darned thing had to be continually adjusted as time went by, usually every month at least.
So it was not surprising that most people just didn’t bother and as the generations passed by, so did the practice of ordinary people not preparing budgets for their personal finances. They just didn’t think that the value derived from maintaining a personal budget was worth the time consumed.
So what’s changed? One very important factor: personal computers – they’ve just made it so easy that if you don’t budget, you’re making life unnecessarily difficult for yourself. It is now well and truly worth the very small investment of time to input a few lines of data every week.
Because from that the computer can give you more financial reports than one person is ever likely to need. It will produce reports on tax deductions; about what you’ve spent; about where you’ve spent it, about what you’ve spent it on and it will do that for any given period of your choosing. It’ll find transactions that you’ve forgotten about but that suddenly you really need to know about. It will tell you how much money you will have in the bank next Christmas (or what you’ve got to stop spending money on so that you will have the amount of money you need in the bank next Christmas.)
The really big thing is that you will be in charge of your finances. It makes it so easy to explain to your dependents – be it spouse, partner or children; just exactly what the household can afford to spend, on what and when. Ninety-five percent of the arguments about money will go out the window because people will be able to see clearly what can and can’t be done. If we buy you that cell phone, we won’t be able to buy that game. You get the idea.
What software is best? Well there’s no shortage of it. It’s not expensive. The best is less than a hundred dollars and you’ll save that in no time flat. Check out the choices available, and choose the one which best suits your personal needs. It will be well worth whatever you decide to invest in it. And it will most definitely save you lots of headaches and heartaches in the long run, if used properly.
About the Author
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Accounting
IMPORTANT: Bing News RSS feed has moved!
4 Feb 2012 at 7:25am
Go to the new RSS page and renew your subscription.
As councils finalise
Gov. Phil Bryant's plans to sell one of the state's planes might
The good news and bad news for divorcing San Franciscans is that the courts suffered some serious
Oregon prison in Salem proposed for closure because of
Oregon's
IMPORTANT: Bing News RSS feed has moved!
4 Feb 2012 at 7:40am
Go to the new RSS page and renew your subscription.
Dear
This post comes from Rob Berger at partner blog The Dough Roller. Editor's note: This post is part of a five-part series on The Dough Roller about destroying
Here's What You'd Earn If You Invested Your
In May 2011, Americans held $793.1 billion in
SAN FRANCISCO, CA ? CreditKarma.com, the consumer's
Tagged:
Budgeting, calculators, debt, money, Spending
Related Articles on No Debt Anymore.org
- The Advantages of Using Money Budgeting Software
- Budgeting and Forecasting in Excel for SAP
- Keep Them Handy: Budgeting Tools that Work
- Guide To Better Budgeting
- HOW TO SAVE MONEY BY DEFINING LIST OF EXPENSES
Recent Articles
- How to Get a Credit Card With No Credit
- More Big Stacks of Money Pictures
- The ONLY Free Credit Report you Need to Know
- Debt Management – Tips To Help You In Troubled Times
- Debt Trap [MSNBC Video]
- How to Set a Budget : How to Compare Income & Expenses
- How To Avoid Workplace Stress
- How To Continue To Work After Retirement
- Debt Management Tips to Eliminate Financial Woes
- Change of Address after Retirement
Free Newsletter
Sign up for the free Daily newsletter, filled with tips and ideas on avoiding credit card debt, credit history, tips on getting out of credit card debt, and more. Your email address will be kept confidential and won't be shared. Easily unsubscribe at any time.
If you enjoy the free information available on this site, you're sure to enjoy the free newsletter as well:
Share and Enjoy:
December 24 2007 08:49 pm | Budgeting and Credit Card and Household Budget and Money Management and No More Debt and Track Your Spending


