A Dirty Little Word

For many people, the word “budget” seems to be a dirty little word. All kinds of fears and concerns are given as a response for not being on a budget. Some of the most common ones I have personally heard are:

“I have my budget in my head”
“I don’t have a steady income week to week or month to month for that matter. A budget doesn’t really apply to my situation.”
“I don’t have the time to write down every little thing that I spend money on. That’s just ridiculous to me!”

Maybe you can relate to some of these sentiments. I would venture to say that most of us can relate to wanting to be on a financial plan that eventually leads us to our desired goals. Those goals vary from person to person but here are some common desires:

Have Savings in place for a rainy day
Paying off Debt
Buy a new home
Buy a new car
College education fund for your children
Vacation
Not having to live Paycheck to Paycheck!

I want to highly encourage you, if you are not already doing so, to establish and live by a personal budget. A budget is actually a very liberating tool in your life. It assigns a placement for every dollar you earn. It pre-determines, by careful thought and planning, where you can best put your dollars to work for you. By following your plan, you will reach your desired goals after a given time. That’s what we all desire. To live life, free from the bondage of debt. To spend without the guilt. To be in a position of being able to bless, rather than from a position of personal need. Ultimately, to have choices!

It is my desire that you will seriously consider establishing a personal budget to help you gain your financial footing. I have personally been using a budgeting program called Mvelopes. It is an excellent program that is intuitively user friendly and I recommend it. This budgeting program is based on an envelope system. It is very simple to understand. You create an “envelope” for each category in your budget. When you receive your paycheck, you fund your “grocery” envelope, for example, with your pre-determined amount of grocery money for the week. When you go to the grocery store, you have that amount of money available to you. If you have money left over in that envelope, then you have extra grocery money that will accrue for your shopping pleasure next time you go to the grocery store. Simple. I like it! It may take you about an hour or so to actually set the program up, but after you do, it’s smooth sailing.

I will write about many of the features of this budgeting program in future writings. For now, if you would like to take a test drive, sign up for a free trial
here. I highly recommend it!

E-File Florida is interested in helping you achieve financial wellness. We are uniquely positioned to help you achieve this goal by offering guidance in tax planning, real estate and personal budgeting.

You can contact E-File Florida at 954-583-8534 or visit us on the Internet at http://www.efileflorida.com for more great tax tips and articles.

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