Financial Planning

Archive for the ‘Budgeting’ Category

Holidays are a great time to relax and chill out; forgetting the stresses of our daily lives and sunning ourselves, or indulging on some extreme sports. Whatever your choice of holiday, its a chance to get away. But we save for them all year round, beginning the process of saving for next year as we get off the plane from this year’s holiday.

But people are spending much more than they can afford when on holiday, a study by American Express has revealed. Holiday makers are not budgeting properly for their trips, with eighty three percent of people not intending to stick to any sort of budget when out of the country. Thirty percent spend excess currency when abroad to avoid having to change it back to the pound when they get home, and ten percent spend what they have left in the airport, to use it up.

The report revealed that a mere seventeen percent stick to their holiday budget, with a quarter of holiday makers taking money out of cash points abroad and therefore risking hefty fines when they get home.

“The last thing people want to do when they go on holiday is worry about money however this summer’s trend should be about being savvy with your money,” said Kirstie Bayley from American Express.

With the current economical climate, spending over our budgets will only impact on our daily lives when we get home.

If you have an urge to travel the world and see what more is out there – great! But, are you put off by not having enough money to do so? If you’re thinking about travelling the first thing you’ll want to work out is your budget and the first question you’ll ask yourself is how can I afford to do it?

Some people work flat out to save enough money to make it happen while others set themselves to a strict budget. Then, there are people who think that travelling is just for the wealthy and give up on their dream quickly. But there is a way to travel and for budgeting not to be necessary, this is to teach English abroad. When you’re teaching English abroad you can live where you want for however long you want – perfect!

With TEFL jobs abroad, you won’t need to count your pennies before buying a nice meal for yourself or a souvenir.

You won’t need to constantly stick to a tight budget, and think about what you have money to do and what you don’t have money for. You’ll have a steady income coming in every month, unlike most other travellers! You can even save money in some countries!

The ‘secret’ for many travellers in their ability to afford long-term travel is that they travel slowly in order to save their money.  There’s nothing wrong with that, but the truth is that money dictates everything about their trip – what they do, when they do it and for how long.

A wedding budget planner is a simple table of expenses that you will most likely spend for your wedding. Most people, however, leave the budgeting to the wedding planners and then pay up once the wedding is well in progress.

While the professionals do get the job of listing down expenses quite nicely, those responsible for doling out the cash need to actively participate in its construction. This is especially so for couples who are strapped for cash, and need to minimize the expenses:

Making a checklist of wedding needs

The first and foremost advantage of a wedding budget planner is the ability to look at what you need for your wedding. A well made budget planner spans everything from expenditures on food and outfits to the tips you’ll be handing out to the caterers and servers. Making a planner allows you to see the items in your wedding as a whole, which in turn gives you a bigger picture of how your wedding will proceed once it gets started. 

Identifying total expenditures

Speaking of the bigger picture, you’ll also be able identify the total expenditures in your initial wedding plans if you have a hand in making your wedding budget planner.

Once you have the checklist down, you can then attach a price tag to each of the items in the planner.

The New York Times has recently reported the loss of almost billion in Obama administration. The government is of course trying its best to gain the trust of the people due to the ailing economy that they have been trying to live up to for the past few years.
Budget Cuts
Despite plans for budget cuts in the expenditures of the federal, the states and the government, experts still foresee great economic problems in the coming months. Due to this, these experts are a little doubtful as to how the government will act on this and how many more financial and budget cuts can the government afford.
Though most experts are cynical about the growth of the economy, some financial analysts believe that with the signs showing the growth of the economy, things will come for the better. They have based their positivity on the economys vital standing which are going up the chart, the expansion of factory production and the fact that more people are buying more cars these days compared to the previous years when they would not care about having the old model. They have also insisted that because of these changes, there is more possibility for the government to spend less which means that it would also need to borrow less from international investors and other companies from the United States can borrow more from the government since they can now start collecting higher taxes. The International Monetary Fund on the other hand is getting worried because these countries and companies are depending too much on money borrowed than doing something to develop and make their respective communities better. They believe that it is better to stand on your own two feet rather than entrust your success to others.
Dan Pena, CEO and president of the Guthrie Groups also believes in this kind of philosophy. He has stated that there is no one else you can actually depend on but yourself and that you should surround yourself with good and inspiring people to help you succeed in life. He has always wanted to help others become as successful as he as that he provided instruction materials through his audio and video files that can be found in his official website http://www.danpena.com. He came up with the Quantum Leap Advantage methodology that would help new business entrepreneurs familiar with what they have chosen to get into and that time would come when there would be no more budget cuts for them.

Creating a budget is hard work, as I and others have discussed elsewhere. Yet having a strong, accurate budget is an essential step towards financial freedom. Once the budget is created, then you need the determination and commitment to keep that budget, which can be difficult given the temptations of the world we live in. One of the ways to keep you on track is to include rewards in your budget.

Types of Rewards

While there are almost an infinite number of things that can be rewards, depending on your personality, there are really two types of rewards when it comes to maintaining your budget.

The first type of reward is what I call a maintenance reward. This reward is what you give yourself periodically for simply holding to your budget. The military gives medals for duration of service as well as heroism; a maintenance reward is like that, something you give yourself simply because you have been doing a good job.

Maintenance awards should not be large, but (of course) enjoyable. Taking your spouse out to dinner is a good example of a maintenance award, or maybe a weekend camping trip (which works very well for me). Include a small savings plan in your budget for this type of reward, say about a month or so. I would suggest you isolate this money; don’t put it in your savings accounts, investment accounts. Instead, just get the cash and put it someplace you can look at it often. This allows you to fantasize a little about the reward, which increases your pleasure. And rather than rewarding yourself every month, make this significant by doing every 3 to 6 months.