Have you ever gotten paid and wondered where your money went? Do you keep thinking that next time you get a raise you’ll have enough money to live and then somehow when the raise comes you’re still broke? Maybe it’s because you need a budget. Now hold on, don’t tune me out because you’re afraid of the B word. Let’s talk about a budget and how it can really be a game changer for your money and your life.
Do you find yourself stressed out about how you’ll have enough money to pay your bills? Do you snap at your partner or friends because you never feel like you have enough money? Financial stress is a huge problem and you may not even realize how much it’s impacting your life. Chris Hogan’s recent book Everyday Millionaires shows that 56% of Americans are kept up at night because of their budgets. So whether or not you want to think about money, it’s probably impacting you in some way.
Does budgeting really solve the problem of financial stress? Well, it isn’t a magical wand, but it does slowly, but surely give you control of your life and your money. A budget breaks your spending down into categories and allows you to see if the places you are spending money are really the things that are most important to you. You should be spending the most money on the things that are your priorities, right? But are you? Do you even think about it when you swipe your credit card or does it just happen automatically?
A budget will help you pause and make sure that you have a written plan and know how much you’re comfortable spending each month. You also want to make sure that you have some money for saving and giving as well. If you just saw giving and are thinking that you can’t possibly give any money right now, that could be true, but it could also be that if you bought one less latte a month you could give or donate $5 to a charity that is important to you. Giving doesn’t have to start out huge. Every dollar helps and every kind gesture creates a ripple, but until you look at your budget you won’t truly know whether or not you could give.
Do you have an emergency fund? An emergency fund is a savings account that you touch only when a true emergency hits- not when you want a new shirt or when Christmas comes, but a true emergency like when your car battery dies or your heat stops working on the coldest day of the year. You might think that you can just charge this on a credit card, but why would you pay interest to the credit card company? That would mean you’re paying more than you have to when you could just work to be prepared. Go Banking Rates 2016 study shows that 69% of Americans could not pay for a $1,000 emergency. Let’s go against normal and be the person who doesn’t freak out when their tire pops because you have money saved for just this reason. While you’d like to never use your emergency fund, life sometimes has other plans. A stressful situation is even worse when you add money stress on top.
How much do I need in an emergency fund to get started? To start things off, save $1,000 for emergencies. This will cover at least most of the cost of a typical emergency and will let you work on other financial priorities like paying off credit cards, student loans, and car payments while having a little buffer for when life doesn’t play fair. When you’re trying to pay off your credit card and an emergency comes up, it’s so much better to not immediately have to dig yourself back deeper into the credit card hole. When your emergency fund is spent, you’ll want to rebuild that savings, but at least you won’t also be paying interest on the money you used like you are when you use a credit card for your emergencies.
Budgeting decreases your stress, gives you control of your money, gives you permission to spend, helps you determine how and how much you can save and give, and helps you prepare for financial emergencies. Do those sound like good things to you? Don’t be scared to start and create your own budget. We have a free Google Sheets template and download available and if you’d like more personalized assistance, schedule your 1-on-1 financial coaching call today.
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