Why make a plan for your money? Isn’t it more fun to just grab what you want whenever you want it?
Growing Up
Living your financial life with the foresight of a 3rd grader may be fun in the moment, but to have what you want next week and next month, a longer term vision is required. Problem is, even when people become convinced of the value of budgeting to their peace and financial freedom, their first attempt to make a budget sets them up for failure.
Make it Today, and For Today
If you’re like most people, the first time you sit down to work up a budget for the coming month, you try to create a generic, one-size-fits-all budget that will represent all future months. You’re planning for the perfect month from heaven, problem is, that month never really happens here in the real world!
The key in building a successful cashflow plan is to spend this month’s income on this month’s expenses. Some expenses will be nice and consistent, such as your house payment or water bill. But if you make your budget too generic, it won’t work in real life, and you’ll be tempted to just give up money management altogether.
Get Started
Today’s always the perfect time to start planning your budget for the coming month. If you haven’t tried the latest version of ThriveWealthy, click the tab above to find the page and download the tool. Read over the instructions briefly, then start entering your expected paycheck amounts and dates. Allocate how you’ll spend all of next month’s income in the different categories provided, changing category names as needed to make the budget fit your life.
Enlist Our Help!
Don’t be discouraged when things come up and you have to revisit your allocations several times throughout the month. As you continue to plan your spending before the money is spent, you’ll improve at predicting your actual expenses, and you’ll also notice that your money will start to be spent on those things that are important to you–with less “falling through the cracks” or getting spent on things that don’t really matter to you. Feel free to post successes, hardships, or questions to the comments section below; we’re all in this together, and we are all here to help each other thrive!