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What discourages some people from doing an effective annual financial budget?
Published on 15th September 2020 by the Be Happy Financial Team
It is natural to want to use our free time doing something enjoyable like spending time with family, partaking in hobbies and so on. It becomes a necessary diversion after a busy week working, compounded with domestic responsibilities and chores, or even a second job. For many what manifests is simply not having the time or energy to make a meaningful budget.
This can be further exacerbated by some level of ‘avoidance’ by perceptions that self-performing a personal financial budget is complex, tedious, and lacking a proven and well known method. Occasionally we have friends and associates refer to personal accounting methods passed down from previous generations or one that has been self-developed – either way, none of them are the same. This could be somewhat inevitable given that we all have different personal financial situations.
Best efforts can be made to track spending and maintain some level of control, sometimes through an app which definitely helps to keep this effort consistent, but does not necessarily address the initial point about an individual or family thoroughly understanding their personal financial situation.
There are however some expceptions – there are people who get a nerdy enjoyment from making a very effective excel based annual financial budget (or as we call it; assessment) and one that ties up nicely to a long-term plan, and religiously doing this at the start of the financial year, e.g. in January for the US, or April for the UK. Perhaps a hobby of sorts?
Budgeting can take a chunk of your time. So, how to make a budget and long-term plan in less time and in turn how to use it effectively? Try which are all covered in our free videos or sign up for the tutorials and available templates and examples.
1. Creating a budget.
2. Review it, refine it.
3. Adjust spending habits and behaviors if necessary.
4. Use an online mobile financial app or other preferred method to track spending.
5. Develop a long-term financial plan – build in your ambitions, targets, needs, and commitments.
6. Consider enlisting the help of a reliable financial advisor.
7. Live life with great satisfaction, predictability, control, knowing what you can realistically afford, and with confidence that you have a predictable and great financial future ahead of you.
Living Beyond our Financial Means? The sad Truth for Many people
Published on 24th August 2020 by the Be Happy Financial Team
This article is based on a true case, but amended with fictional events. For many this is an all too frequent story.
Two suburban neighbors got entangled over a property line issue because one neighbor was unable to contribute $175 toward some previously agreed repairs.
They did not have them money due to some child medical costs of around $370 to paid at in the same month. Their next pay day was not for another two weeks, and there were no savings or cash surplus in their checking account that could have helped.
Materialistically, life was good for this family – home comforts, new vehicles, regularly eating out in good restaurants etc.
Compounded by similar previous events, what transpired was a realization of their lack of financial security driven bu a lack of real understanding about their financial situation.
Appropriate budget allocation and amending of spending behaviors to match their financial means were just some critical areas where this family could do better. Be Happy Financial cover these very areas in the self-help videos and tutorials.