Money Worries?

Written by Terry J. Rigg


Continued from page 1

If one category exceedsrepparttar 30% by very much that is part of repparttar 110432 problem. This isrepparttar 110433 area where you need to concentrate your efforts.

You can approach this in two different ways. The first method is to cut your spending inrepparttar 110434 category that you have determined to berepparttar 110435 problem. The second is to cut spending or expenses in other categories to make uprepparttar 110436 difference.

I recommend that you be careful about cutting your Household Expenses too much. While you can cut your grocery bill and some other areas, you will need a certain amount of money to run your household.

No matter what your current money situation you can find help on repparttar 110437 internet free. Be careful not to fall intorepparttar 110438 many scams that are currently all overrepparttar 110439 web. To get you started you can visitrepparttar 110440 Budget Stretcher Partner Sites below:

TheFrugalShopper.com http://www.thefrugalshopper.com BetterBudgeting.com http://www.betterbudgeting.com The Stay-at-Home Parents Page http://www.geocities.com/sahmlomano/index2.html Debt Smart http://www.DebtSmart.com Greedy Fools.com http://www.greedyfools.com Brighter Futures http://www.brighterfutures.com Freebie Haven http://www.121fun.com FreelanceByU http://www.Freelancebyu.com MoneyMakingMommy.com http://www.moneymakingmommy.com Tidbits fromrepparttar 110441 Pantry http://www.humansrv.net Usave2day.com http://www.usave2day.com

As with any other type of problem you are not going to solve your money problems by worrying about them. It takes action. The sooner you get startedrepparttar 110442 better.

Terry Rigg is the author of Living Within Your Means - The Easy Way http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/ebookadpage.html and editor of The FREE Budget Stretcher Newsletter and Budget Stretcher web site http://www.homemoneyhelp.com. He has 25 years of experience counseling individuals and families concerning their personal finances.


Yes, You Can Budget!

Written by Terry J. Rigg


Continued from page 1

As with anything else there are basic guidelines that are universally accepted. These vary somewhat depending on who you talk to butrepparttar below percentages will get you close to what is accepted.

What I am talking about isrepparttar 110431 percentage of your income (take home pay) that you should allot for each category of your budget. At Budget Stretcher I have broken this down to just 4 categories to make your budget experience as simple as possible.

Here arerepparttar 110432 percentages:

Housing - 30% of your take home pay. Housing costs cover your rent or mortgage payment, taxes, etc.

Other Bills - 30% of your take home pay. This isrepparttar 110433 catch all category that includes your regular bills excluding housing. Your credit cards, utilities, loan payments, car payments, insurance, etc. are all covered in this category.

Household Expenses - 30% of your take home pay. This is what it takes to run your household. This includes groceries, car gas and allrepparttar 110434 other stuff you have to pay for between paydays.

Savings - 10% of your take home pay. This is possiblyrepparttar 110435 most important of all ofrepparttar 110436 categories. If you don't have a long term and short term savings program it is going to be difficult to solve any money problems you may have.

At least %5 of your take home pay should be used for short term savings. This is very important because it is what is going to cover any unexpected expenses that may pop up. This will prevent repparttar 110437 use of credit cards to cover these expenses.

Your short term savings should be kept in a savings account or other savings program that will allow you to lay your hands on it quickly. This isn't to say that you should use this when money runs short atrepparttar 110438 end ofrepparttar 110439 month.

You should also put aside at least 5% of your take home pay for your long term savings. One day you will want to buy a house or sendrepparttar 110440 kids to college and this isrepparttar 110441 pot of money that is going to accomplish that.

Even if you have a 401k or other retirement plan it is still a good idea to put this money away. This money needs to be in an account that will pay yourepparttar 110442 most interest without a lot of risk.

Since I'm not an investment expert I won't even begin to make a recommendation on where to invest this money. You will need to consult a competent investment broker for this advice.

As you can see byrepparttar 110443 percentages above your budget is actually as simple as 2+2. If your bills and expenses doesn't fit into repparttar 110444 recommended percentages then you need to work on it until it does.

If you are like I was you can probably come up with a thousand reasons why you can't budget your money. Either you have too many bills, you are too far behind on those bills or you just don't want to makerepparttar 110445 perceived sacrifices necessary to live on a budget.

I'm not going to try to fool you into believing that there won't be sacrifices. I am going to tell you that what ever sacrifices you have to make will be well worthrepparttar 110446 effort.

Terry Rigg is the author of Living Within Your Means - The Easy Way http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/ebookadpage.html and editor of The FREE Budget Stretcher Newsletter and Budget Stretcher web site http://www.homemoneyhelp.com. He has 25 years of experience counseling individuals and families concerning their personal finances.


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