If this is your first time visiting, check out the story behind this blog. Otherwise, please join the others by subscribing to my RSS feed or get updates via email so you don't miss any personal finance articles!

I have $100,000 saved up in bank accounts by following good frugal practices that you and others outline. I however don’t budget and never keep track of my expenses. I know I’m saving money because my account grows every month. Why should I budget …

There are many reasons to making a budget and keeping track of all expenses apart from growing a surplus. I admit that it is actually very difficult to keep an expense tracking system up-to-date because not bothering to update it doesn’t have an immediate effect on us. However, maintaining a budget is like maintaining a bridge. There may not be problems even if you stop maintaining for a long time, but consequences may be disastrous when it does. Below are some more reasons why you want to maintain the bridge:

Builds Discipline and Organization
Having a budget really builds your discipline and organizes your finances, which is the first step of knowing your overall financial health. Without easy to read data, there is no way of knowing what is going on!

Forces You to Think About Money
This is a side benefit of having a budget but an important one. The more time you spend thinking about your money, the more focus you are in building your wealth. Once you start thinking about money often, you will find that you are able to find more ways to save and more ways to generate income!

Crisis Prevention
Looking at your finances in regular intervals will allow you to spot trends and see areas that can be improved way before it becomes a problem. By preventing crisis from starting, you are way ahead of everyone else who can only react!

Great Tool to Start Family Discussions
Money is always a hard subject to discuss. If the whole family is involved in budget making and expense tracking, it makes discussions much easier. It is always a good idea to just lay out the facts when talking about money matters and the expense tracker is the perfect tool to do this!

Quantifiable Way of Measuring Progress
In theory, we all want to reduce our spending and make more money but it is impossible to know how we are doing without actually keeping track of it. Budget tracking to measure progress is not just a benefit but a requirement!

Without a budget, how do we know that we are meeting our goals?

Knowledge is Power
By keeping track of your budgets, you will know exactly how much money you actually need on a monthly basis. Equipped with this knowledge, you are able to plan and allocate the required emergency funds, immediately know how unexpected issues like losing a job or having a child will do to your financial health.

Stress Reliever
Knowing your exact financial situation is such a stress reliever because you don’t have to worry about the unknown. Even if your financial situation is shaky, you will be spending time fixing the problem and not trying to find out what the issue is!

Let’s get back to thinking of the bridge. Keep maintaining it and you won’t be sorry. Become lazy and be ready to suffer the consequences.

My parents taught me so much of what I know today.  The importance of living below our means, the understanding of money matters and the appreciation of compound interest are all values that were ingrained into me at a very young age.  I remember my mom used to tell me “there are always ways to save more money so keep looking”.

So mom, I am practicing this today.  I will keep looking for ways to cut my spending.  To help me do this, I listed out my average expenses for the last 3 months.

Expenses for the Past 3 Months (April to June 2008):

There seems to be major differences with just 3 months alone! The total for “low” represents me being ultra frugal while the total for “high” represents me as a major spender. Just this quick look has already established a dream goal of just spending $1417.14 per month. Now let’s break down the spending in each category to see whether this goal is achievable.

Food

This one is easy to cut back. All I need to do is eat out less and order less expensive food when I go out! Out of the $223.21 monthly high, 4 meals make up $180 of it so my goal here is to shoot for the low, $66.02.

Gas

Spending less money on gas is harder than cutting back on food but some ways include:

• Drive less by grouping trips with similar purposes
• Be more patient on the road and drive with less emphasis on strong acceleration and hard braking
• Think about the route that I will take before getting on the road to avoid driving unnecessarily

With these tips, I’m aiming for the average, $135.37 a month.

Goods

This is one where cutting is easier said than done. It’s very easy for me to just say that I will not buy anything each month, but it is very difficult to accomplish. Therefore, I’m going to try not buying anything in the next 3 months instead of saying I will never buy anything ever again.

Entertainment

I know doing this wouldn’t make it the ultimate guide to cutting my budget but I’m going to keep the entertainment expense at $150. As you can see, I can be totally frugal and just keep the entertainment expense to only $19.24 but I need to be sensible and make this goal practical and achievable. Therefore, I’m keeping some “fun” money in my new budget, making it $150 a month.

Misc

This one is easier than it seems. The $347.85 is actually a car maintenance expense last month. Since I don’t foresee anymore unexpected expenses, my goal is $20 a month for miscellaneous expenses.

Average Spending of the Last 3 Months: $1875.18
New Budget Goal: $1601.39
Savings: $273.79

I feel good already knowing there are more ways to save! Follow me and do the same analysis with your budget today! Then come back and tell us how much you will be saving!

Deciding to consolidate your debts is an excellent choice for many individuals, but making that decision is only the first step, learning how to manage your finances is the next step in ultimately becoming debt
free. Budget planning can help you identify how you spend your money and where you may be over spending. The goal in preparing a budget is to insure that your monthly expenses do not exceed your monthly income.

Below are some tips to assist you in starting off the New year on the right financial foot:

Tips on Budgeting

1. Write down your total monthly net income. Include all sources of income such as, salary, child support, pension, etc. Next, list all your monthly expenses, including your house or rent payment, food, gas, utilities, credit card payments, etc. Then subtract your monthly expenses from your total monthly income.
2. Look for areas where you can cut back and save some money.
3. Use the information to set a budget for yourself. Include approximately 5% to 10% for savings.
4. Review your budget on a monthly basis to determine how things are going. You may discover an area where your are overspending and can then adjust it accordingly.

Tips on Saving Money

1. Cut back home energy consumption by turning off lights when you are not using them and placing an air conditioner on a timer. You can also remove unnecessary phone options to cut down costs. Contact your local utility service providers and ask about their budgeting plans and programs to help you manage these expenses.
2. Shop at outlet or wholesale clubs. When you do shop, use lists to avoid impulse purchases.
3. Try bringing your lunch to work instead of having to buy everyday.

Money Ning thoughts: Great advice. How many of these do you do already? I think I will implement the “list” advice for my wife so we don’t buy too much immediately!

Welcome to the 146th Carnival of Personal Finance, Q1 Financial Advice Edition.

There are many things we can do to help our finances throughout the year and certain ones are time sensitive. Now that the first quarter of the year has officially past, let’s look at what we could’ve done during this time while enjoying the following great articles!

Editor Choice

There is no doubt that great financial articles help us gain knowledge and in turn provide a solid foundation for us to build our wealth on. Here’s a few of many around the blogsphere…

• FMF from Free Money Finance gives us 10 Things to Discuss Before You Get Married. Everyone should read this article!
• Paidtwice from I’ve Paid For This Twice Already knows that Budgeting On An Irregular Income is still possible and tells us how! Valuable advice!
• David from Money Under 30 presents The Annual Cost of Pet Ownership: Can You Afford a Furry Friend?, and says, “How much is that doggy in the window? More than you think…”. I don’t know anyone who would ever do a calculation like this before he/she buys a pet but maybe we all should!
• Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life gives us Smart Moves To Lower Your Health Care Costs! This is probably one of the areas that people most often overlook so remember to check this out!
• NCN from No Credit Needed presents Getting The Entire Family Involved With Managing Our Finances, sharing with us how his family manages finances together.

Credit

Did we do anything foolish during the holidays last year? If so, usually Q1 is spent thinking about our past and whether we can do anything to fix our credit. The worst of these might be those that bought that Lexus as a Christmas gift but did it on credit!

• Devray from Managing Personal Finance offers his knowledge on what the banks are up to when they offer us credit card and urges us to start our fight back against the banks’ policy.
• Bill from The Money Hacks tells us the ins and outs of Building a Credit History.
• Penelope from Our Fourpence Worth tells us that Closing Your Credit Cards Can Hurt Your FICO Score.
• Pinyo from Moolanomy gives us a little example to show us The Cost of Instant Gratification.
• JS from Smart Money Daily presents FICO Score Facts, Stats & Mysteries, and says, “Your FICO score can affect a lot of aspects of your life: everything from your chance having a decent retirement fund, to ability to get a job or find a place to live. Until a couple of years ago there wasn’t much known about the magical FICO number, but now information and mis-information is everywhere.”
• debt freedom fighter from Discover Debt Freedom presents 10 Facts Credit Card Companies Don’t Want You To Know.
• The Happy Rock from The Happy Rock presents Cash Back Credit Card Analysis For The Happy Rock.
• Credit Addict from creditaddict.com presents Beware of Falling Credit Limits.
• Hannah from The Penny Mine presents How to Get Great Credit in 2008.

Economy

The economy has certainly been the center of attention during the past quarter. With the current housing crisis and perceived lack of credit for business borrowing, everyone is thinking about recession. In this environment, it is even more important to increase our retirement savings and emergency funds just in case something happens!

• vh from Funny about Money is skeptical that the Economy is in good shape even though the stock market has been up in his piece - What next? Will corporate welfare and financial socialism save us from recession?
• The Financial Blogger thinks Canadian Banks are Going Bankrupt!! Not a good sign!
• Seb from Pinching Copper presents There are no victims in the housing bust, and says, “It seems like I can’t go a day without watching or reading another news story about how an innocent American family has become completely overwhelmed by debt.”
• Mom from Wide Open Wallet presents The pawn shops are thriving.

Money Management

Managing our money is timeless and probably one of the most important aspect of increasing our wealth. I personally take the “put everything in my bank/brokerage accounts and then do everything I can to not withdraw approach.” It’s worked for me and maybe you can try it too!

• Dorian from The Personal Financier tells us How to Avoid Crippling Your Retirement Funds. Avoiding a serious blow to our retirement funds is crucial to our future!
• Margaret from You Might as Well Burn $5 talks about the possibility of The $37 Latte!
• Jonathan from Master Your Card gives us more tips on How to Survive the Coming Recession!
• Jennifer Derrick from Saving Advice Blog presents 21 Days to a Negative Money Habit, and says, “It usually takes 21 days to form a habit - they can be both good or bad.”
• Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck presents The Great IRA Contribution Squeeze, and says, “You have until April 15 to make your 2007 IRA contribution. If you’re doing everything you can to come up with cash now, great. But wouldn’t it be nice to avoid the squeeze next year and still make a decent contribution? Here’s how.”
• Deamiter from Handling Finances presents Saving for Specific Goals at ING, and says, “ING Direct’s low costs allow them to offer multiple savings accounts. This is a great opportunity to better organize your money if you find your specific goals being lost in one large account.”
• FFB from Free From Broke presents Four Ways I Upgraded Out Of My Raises, and says, “I’ve gotten many raises in my work career but for a while my savings situation didn’t change. I’ll tell you why - I upgraded!”
• Bob from Christian Finances presents Money Merge Account, and says, “Looking at the pros and cons of money merge accounts - who should get one and who should steer clear of them.”
• Rio from Get Financially Fit presents How to pay off your home in half the time, and says, “Here is how to pay off your mortgage in half the remaining time.”
• Dan Meyer from Tick Marks presents Six Minefields Which Can Ravage Retirement Resources.
• Enoch Ko from The Wealth Accumulator presents Build an emergency cash reserve, and says, “In this post, I discuss why building an emergency cash reserve is important, and how to go about doing it.”
• Starving Artist from Indebted 2 You presents Phone Calls Saved Me $185, and says, “Don’t shrug your shoulders if you get an unfair fee–it’s your money. Here’s a walk through a few instances where I recently put a total of $185 back in my pocket. Live and learn.”
• retirehappy from My Retirement Blog presents Save to Retirement Fund or Emergency Fund?, and says, “Retirement fund or emergency fund?”
• livingalmostlarge from LivingAlmostLarge presents Can you stop the worry?.
• nickel from FiveCentNickel presents a quick list of The Best High Yield Online Bank Savings Accounts.
• mbhunter from Mighty Bargain Hunter presents When do you stop renting and buy?, and says, “Buying is usually cheaper in the long run, but does one have to buy right at the start?”
• Finance Girl from Finance Gets Personal presents Financial “I Never” with Finance Girl.

Frugality

With not many holidays in the first quarter, there shouldn’t be anymore excuses to be frugal! If there still are, acknowledge the fact that they are excuses and stop telling yourself that you cannot be frugal! Spend less, save more and be rich!

• Bryce from Save and Conquer understands that we are all envy and jealous when we encounter someone with more or better stuff that we have and shows us how to Hang with the Joneses.
• Amy from My Daily Dollars presents 5 Tips for a Wedding Under $5,000, and says, “Some ideas to have a wonderful wedding for less!”
• Chief Family Officer presents Creative strategies for coping with rising costs - Part Four: Unusual Ideas For Saving Money Without Reducing Your Standard Of Living, and says, “The key for coming up with unusual ideas for saving money is to think outside of the box - and specifically, outside of *your* box.”
• MoneyKing from The Money Kings presents Be Honest With Yourself About Exercise Equipment, and says, “We all know people that have dusty exercise equipment in their homes. This needs to stop, of course . . . in a major way.”
• Lily from The Honest Dollar presents 100 Ways to Cope with Inflation.
• RC from Think Your Way To Wealth presents Top Ten Ways To Aggravate Your Spouse or Significant Other With Your Frugality.

Investing

The past quarter was a rough one for most investors with the real estate and stock market tanking. Remember though, that the stock and housing market has an historic uptrend so stay calm and keep invested!

• Barb from Bond Index Funds advises us to invest in fixed income securities only through low cost bond market index funds.
• Mr Credit Card from Ask Mr Credit Card talks about investing too! Read about his explanation of the severe limitations of the index funds.
• Dividends4Life gives us some stats and tells us that “Hey, You Invest like a Girl” isn’t really a bad thing.
• Four Pillars from Quest for Four Pillars discusses whether or not We are Missing Out on Hedge Funds.
• Dividend Growth Investor explains his one rule of thumb - one dollar saved in the twenties supplies one dollar of income in the sixties.
• Dan at EverydayFinance from Everyday Finance presents Apparently, It Pays to Be Naughty - Vice Fund vs. Socially Responsible Fund, and says, “An unique view of fund performance with “Socially Responsible” investments vs. “Sin” stocks like alcohol, casino and beverage stocks. The results may surprise you!”
• Ryan Suenaga from Uncommon Cents presents Individual Stocks: Not Gambling, but not for Everyone Either.
• Smarty from Growing Money presents Stock Challenge April 2008.
• Kyle from Amateur Asset Allocator presents Forecasting Stock Returns Using Macroeconomic Growth Factors, and says, “Over time, corporate earnings comprise about 10% of GDP. We can use this as a basis to predict what future stock returns might be.”
• Shadox from Money and Such presents Stupid Financial Advice Revisited, and says, “Here’s one bit of financial advice that would have cost you 38% of your money in just over 5 months… What’s to be learned from such horrible advice?”
• The Dividend Guy presents High Dividend Payout Ratio = High Earnings Growth Rate, and says, “This post looks at that research to see how we as investors should deal with high and low dividend payout ratios.”
• Sid from The Money Well presents Investing In Your Children - Your Best Investment, and says, “The article is about investing money wisely in your children’s education and their future.”
• Bob McDonald from The Platinum Years Network talks about Alternative Investment You Should Know About.
• FIRE Finance presents Tax FREE Money Market Mutual Funds!

Finance

I applied for the CFA level 1 exam in December in Q1. What have you done to increase your financial knowledge in the past 3 months?

• The Skilled Investor presents Objective Personal Finance Answers Are Hard to Find.
• Bill from InsureBlog presents Zap!, and says, “The Repo Man has a new, high-tech gadget in his arsenal, to more quickly reclaim those new wheels. InsureBlog’s Bob Vineyard wonders if hospitals will also pick up on that tech. Ouch!”
• Raymond from Money Blue Book presents Traditional and Roth IRA Contribution Limits and Income Phase Outs.
• Paula from Monroe on a Budget wrotes about the Financial Lessons from To Kill a Mocking Bird!
• Mrs. Micah from Mrs. Micah: Finance for a Freelance Life presents What’s
  Wrong with Being Middle Class.
• Amanda from Value For Your Life presents The Upside of a Down Economy

Debt

Avoid this at all cost whether it’s Q1, Q2, Q3, or Q4!!! This subject is very serious and should not be taken lightly. Debt is never a good thing so remember to think carefully before getting into it.

• Start and Step presents My Snowflake Rules - Snowflake Step #6, and says, “My summary of how I’m going to use snowflaking to attack my debt.”
• Jacob from All About The Ben presents How To
  Eliminate Your Credit Card Debt, and says, “A step-by-step plan for eliminating costly credit card debt.”
• Andy from Tight Fisted Miser presents The CCRA and Law School Loan Forgiveness.

Saving

Saving is the first step to wealth. Most people don’t contribute to their IRAs until the first quarter because the deadline for last year’s contribution is in April. These people usually don’t end up being able to maximum their contributions because they procrastinate!! So moral of the story? Save early and often!

• Penny Nickel from Money Values is looking at I Bonds for protection against inflation!
• Faron from Financial Learn tells us the Importance of Teaching Your Kids to Save!
• Kimberly Palmer from Alpha Consumer presents Smart Splurges and Saves.
• Foxie from Dreaming of Ferraris presents Compromising Spending and Saving, and says, “It’s important to know just how much you have for both spending and saving. It’s also good to remember to allocate the savings in a way that will help you, wherever you financially stand.”
• Aaron Stroud from On Financial Success presents Can we afford college, and says, “A post answering a reader’s question about how to pay for kid’s college expenses.”
• PT from Prime Time Money presents Your Emergency Fund Is So Big…, and says, “Examining the correct size of short-term emergency savings.”
• Jennifer from Getting Ahead talks about 10 Easy Ways to Save Money.
• Super Saver from My Wealth Builder presents Become A Millionaire.
• Andy S from Saving to Invest presents Excessive Taxes and Fees on my Cable/Phone Bill, and says, “Potential savings from high taxes and services fees on your cable and phone bills”

Real Estate

The housing market continues to be weak. I’m in Southern California and there are so many foreclosures around here and it’s not a pretty scene at all! With so many loans changing interest rates in the coming months, there doesn’t seem like there is an end of declining house values in sight.

• Kevin from No Debt Plan critiques about “My First Place” TV show and he also offers advices for first time home buyers!
• Dan Melson from Searchlight Crusade presents The Difference Between Note Rate (APY) and APR.
• Debbie from American Consumer News presents Five Ways to Increase the Value Of Your Home For Under $100.
• Frugal Babe presents The Cost Of A Bigger House, and says, “There’s been a lot of effort and a some
  money involved, but it’s a whole lot less expensive than upgrading to a bigger house.
• Joe from Tallahassee Florida Real Estate Blog presents Creative
  Home Selling - Taking A Lesson From Wall Street, and says, “In today’s tough real estate market, where Sellers seem to far outnumber Buyers, it is important to have a complete “bag of tools” when you desire to sell a home in Florida.
• Millionaire Mommy Next Door presents How to Make Money Without Ownership: Take Advantage of the Housing Slump, and says, “As the number of vacant homes for sale surges, creative people, donning their thinking-caps, see dollar signs.”

Budgeting

The beginning of the year is a great time to examine the budget you made last year and make adjustments to the yearly spending limits! Once you come up with the budget, remember to stick to it!

• Mr. Debtbeater from DebtBeater lists 3 Surefire Methods to Paying Your Bills On Time. The way I make sure the bills be paid on time is to pay them when I receive notice of them!
• Shawna from Bumblefucked presents The importance of having wiggle room in your budget.
• Denina from tips and tricks presents April Flowers.

Career

Congratulations if you are one of the lucky people that got a bonuses during the beginning of the year. Remember that the company gave you the bonus because of your good performance so repay the company by working hard! Drill it into your minds that hard work starts in Q1 and extends all through the year!

• tehnyit from Cheap as chips presents You are only worth at market value, and says, “An article on how your salary is determined by market value, not by how good your talents are.”
• Will from Your Finish Rich Plan presents Are You Gaining The Most You Can From Your Current Job?, and says, “This article focuses on making people go beyond the simple per hour rate they’re being paid. It helps them put a dollar value to other benefits they might be entitled to.”
• Debbie from American Small Business News presents Open
  Communication in the Business Environment.
• Joe D from Know The Ledge presents Being A Team Player Only Gets You So Far.
• Lisa Spinelli from Greener Pastures presents IBD’s 10 Secrets to Success.”

Taxes

If you still haven’t filed your taxes yet, you only have a few more days to do so! Don’t be late because you are only giving the government a longer loan!

• Broke Grad Student talks about something that’s closely related to him in Tax Breaks for College Students and Recent Grads.
• Madison from My Dollar Plan presents IRA Recharacterization: What, Why, How and When?, and says, “Just in time for taxes this week!”

Other

• Mr. B from Interesting Money suggests The House Rabbit as Nature’s Economical Pet! Own a pet and meet your budget!
• Kris from Cheap Healthy Good presents Touchy Subjects: Confronting Loved Ones about Weight and Money Problems
• Freethinker from Freethoughtmovement tells us what must be one of the worst experience with a financial advisor as you can get in this world.
• Aryn from Sound Money Matters presents Surprise! Your Car Gets Worse Gas Mileage Than You Thought, and says, “After the new gas mileage rating system was released, I discovered that my car doesn’t get as many miles per gallon as I believed, and new cars don’t fare much better.”
• Junger from Online Savings Blog answers the question of Why an iPhone is a Worthy Investment. Go iPhone!
• Clint from Accumulating Money presents Educating Young Children about Money.
• FT from Million Dollar Journey presents Sustainability and Financial Health, and says, “How we can do things financially to help the sustainability of the earth.”
• Lazy Man from Lazy Man and Money presents Budgeting for a Tank and I say we should all chip in!
• GBlogger from Can I Get Rich On A Salary presents Success Factors of the Really Rich?, and says, “What can we learn from reading and comparing wealthy people?”
• BeThisWay from Are You Going To Be This Way the Rest of the Time I Know You?
  presents Two Steps Forward, One Step Back.
• squawkfox presents Top Ten 80s Songs About Money, and says, “Here are the top ten 80s songs about money”
• Ryan Taylor from Millionaire Money Habits presents The Real Life Money Tree, and says, “Money trees do actually exist, and it greatly boost your earnings, increase investment funds and potentially build a multi-million dollar source of income. Learn how to start growing a money tree by reading the rest of this article.”

Final Words

What a great week of articles and thank you all for participating and reading! Enjoy the post which will start us off the the second quarter running! If you still have energy to read more, check out my submission for this week!

• Be Human and Buy a Home!

How many of us really look forward to the weekend but don’t really have anything to do on a Saturday morning/afternoon? Other than writing on your blog or reading someone else’s blog to kill time, why not do a personal finance checkup?

I suggest you to start keeping track of how your net worth/debt and spending are doing. Those that have a budget might want to spend some time analyzing their worksheets to see if they can spot trends and figure out how they can slurge less. For example, you might see that you started spending a lot more money on hot coffee because it is cold outside. Maybe you can get a mug and bring the hot coffee from home everyday.

Instead of just sitting in front of the computer or TV, maybe you can think of ways to earn more money. You might only be able to come up with ideas to earn a couple bucks a month, but perhaps the same ideas can grow into a million dollar idea.

Life rewards action so start acting today!

I was reading the May edition of Money Magazine, and one of the articles had an interesting idea regarding budget planning really caught my eye. One of the advices given was to set a budget for impulse buys, or what I’m calling the fun expense. For example, if I budget $250 dollars for this fun expense, I can use it for whatever I wish. I can use the $250 dollars on junk food, coffee, that new tie, dress, or whatever I wish to use it on.

With this fun expense already in my plans, you can feel happy because you get to have fun, while being responsible. They key of course is to set a strict dollar amount, and never go over it.

What I would change of this approach is a dynamic approach to this. Most of the time, I will still try my hardest not to spend money on these expenses. However, when I feel unmotivated, as I was when I wrote this entry, I would use this approach for a couple of months to right the ship.

I believe that doing this will give me the added motivation for the long run. As we always say – Financial freedom for the average folks is achieved slowly through time. With patience, and with discipline, everyone can become financially independent.