Tracking, planning, and * overhalling * your hard earned money
can help you reach any financial goals that you have, help you
in getting out of debt, and help you gain back control of your
money, your future, and your life.
Dawn Rivers Baker of WAHM & Mompreneur has a great series, *
Financial Management 101 * ( http://www.wahm-
mompreneur.com/finmanage.html ) in which she writes, * Managing
cash flow is the simple matter of projecting cash receipts and
needed cash outlays within a certain period of time - a week, a
month, a quarter, a year - ... Good cash management consists
very basically of three things: knowing when you need money,
knowing where that money is going to come from and knowing where
you can get money from if you fall short. With good cash
management, you may find yourself with a bit of money left over
when you have paid your bills. *
To assist you, in this often overlooked area of one’s life, I
have found several generic cash flow/budget worksheets on the
Internet, one in which you can enter your figures and it will
calculate everything for you. I have listed those links at the
end of this article, but please keep reading before bouncing
over to them! Just remember that these worksheets are generic
and it is up to you to customize them to your lifestyle and
habits.
Listed below are the percentages (based on net spendable income,
after tithing and taxes), according to Larry Burkett
(http://www.cfcministry.org ), that you should ONLY be spending
in each category of your budget:
Housing - 38% Food - 12% Automobile(s) - 15% Insurance - 5%
Debts - 5% Entertainment & Recreation - 5% Clothing - 5% Savings
- 5% Medical Expenses - 5% Miscellaneous - 5% To meet the 8%
that you should allocate for school/child care, if needed, you
will have to make adjustments of the above categories by an
equal amount.
To have a true sense of where you're spending your money daily,
keep a daily expense log for at least one month. Enter in
everything that you purchase DAILY! Even that .25 cent pack of
gum or mints. Get a little notebook that you keep with you and
just do IT! This will allow you to see where you can cut back
and/or start saving.
For instance, if you buy a newspaper everyday at .50 cents a
pop, and a $1 for the Sunday paper, you've just spent $208 for a
year of reading what? DO you read the whole paper or just the
home or sports section?
If you read the paper at home, does it start to pile up causing
more clutter and more of your time to dispose of it?
Where else can you get this SAME information? Maybe on the
Internet (if you're reading this, you are probably already
paying for Internet service). At the library? Can you read your
co-workers? Do you also watch the television news?
How important is it for you to read the newspaper everyday and
see $208 go out of YOUR pocket every year?
How much * bad * news do you really want to read and listen to
everyday? Be selective! Remember how much your time is worth!
This and your other daily habits are what I want you to take a
STRONG look at and see what you can * OverHall and Balance *,
see what you are willing to give up, what you don't really need,
or what costly habit you can change or cut back.
As Deborah Fowles, financial writer of about.com, stated in her
article * Financial Planning *: * To those of you who think you
know where your money goes without keeping detailed records, I
issue this challenge: keep track of every cent you spend for one
month. I promise you'll be surprised and perhaps shocked by how
much some of your "small" expenditures add up to. For an
eye-opening illustration, try the American Express * Savings or
Spending Big Calculator at
http://www6.americanexpress.com/401k/scripts/saveBig.asp Enter
the cost and frequency of a habit or indulgence and how many
years you expect it to continue. Click a button and see not only
how much you'll spend over the specified time period, but also
how much that same amount would grow to if you invested it at
various rates of return. Mind-boggling! *
You might think all of this is too much work, am I right? Well
let me ask you, how much work will it be or take when you are
retired and have no savings, no investments, no assets, no
money, no NOTHING because you didn't control your cash flow?
If you're already retired, how hard might you be struggling
because you aren't paying attention to your money?
As Dr. Lair Ribeiro, author of * Success Is No ACCIDENT * wrote,
* If you go on doing what you've always done, you'll go on
getting what you've always got. *
STOP procrastinating! Get your priorities in line! Get focused!
OverHall your cash flow so you can stop worrying about money,
stop living from pay check to pay check, stop being late on your
bills. Work on balancing your cash flow so you won't have
problems or troubles NOW or in your later years.
TIP: The best time to work on this is when you are paying your
bills.
Business Owners-The Small Buisness Development Center in your
neighborhood will be happy to help you for FREE with your
business cash flow!
Websites of interest:
~~ Basic Budget Worksheet at
http://financialplan.about.com/finance/financialplan/
library/blbudget.htm
~~ Budget Worksheet
http://www.moneyminded.com/incomego/start/a7budw15.ht m
~~ List of Small Business Development Centers
http://www.nttc.edu/assist/sbdc.html
~~ Cash Flow Worksheet http://www.e-analytics.com/fpa2.htm
~~ Managing your Business Cash Flow Worksheet
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/lifestyles/text/
p06_0100.htm
~~ FREE Exl-Plan Business Shareware to prepare comprehensive
financial projecitons, budgets, and business plans
http://www.planware.org/exldown.htm Smiles, not Piles, Janet L.
Hall
The Organizing Wizard, Janet L. Hall, is a Professional
Organizer, Speaker, and Author. She is the owner of OverHall
Consulting, and Organizing By Phone. Subscribe to her FREE
organizing newsletter at http://www.overhall.com/newsletter.htm
or visit her web site at http://www.overhall.com
Copyright ( C ) 1999, 2000, 2001 by OverHall Consulting P.O. Box
263, Port Republic, MD 20676 All Rights Reserved. Permission is
granted to reproduce, copy, or distribute so long as this
copyright notice and full information about contacting the
author is attached.
About the author:
The Organizing Wizard, Janet L. Hall, is a Professional
Organizer, Speaker, and Author. She is the owner of OverHall
Consulting, and Organizing By Phone. Subscribe to her FREE
organizing newsletter at http://www.overhall.com/newsletter.htm
or visit her web site at http://www.overhall.com
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