Why Budget? (Part 5): Budget Gives an Immediate Raise

Believe it or not, creating a budget may leave you with the feeling that you just got a raise. Now that you’ve confronted your bad spending habits and hopefully vowed to eliminate them, you all of a sudden have a lot more money to work with to reach your real goals.

How do you “get a raise” if you aren’t literally making more money?

Why Budget? (Part 4): The Power of Written Words

Many people understand the extreme power of words. Well, there is something even more powerful than that. The most powerful words are those that are in writing. When there is some sort of legal dispute, anything on paper is infinitely more powerful evidence than something that someone said. Regardless of which goal-setting system you use, they all agree on the importance of writing them down. In my own life, physically writing a daily to-do list increases the likelihood of me actually completing my goals for the day. When we use the power of writing to craft a budget, we release things that increase the likelihood of our success.

Why Budget? (Part 3): Develops a Sense of Control

How many times to we wake up to realize that something in our life is out of control? It could be our health and weight. It could be our job performance. It could be our relationships with those in our family. Many times, it is an issue with our finances.

We grow up. We go to the college of our choice. We have a good time. We graduate and get our first “real job.” We buy a car (with a payment). We rent our first post-college apartment (that we hope is a serious upgrade from what we had in college). We outfit that apartment with furniture and electronics. We buy new clothes. The list goes on. Then all of a sudden, we realize that everything that we’ve built was built with false money! That money is called “credit.”

Why Budget? (Part 2): It Makes You Responsible

In this short series, I have been discussing five reasons why creating a budget is important and a key factor in achieving your financial goals. The first reason for budgeting involved confronting bad habits.

Reason #2: Creating a Budget Makes You Face Your Reality and Makes You Responsible for Your Future

Many people live their lives with no purpose or direction. Even if they do not do that in every aspect of their lives, for some reason, people tend to live that way with their finances. It does not matter if it is someone going from minimum wage job to slightly above minimum wage job or someone with several graduate degrees and a lucrative income.

Why Budget? (Part 1): Confronts Bad Habits

I believe that creating and following a budget is the key ingredient in taking control of your finances and achieving your goals. In this introductory series, I will reveal five reasons why creating a budget is essential to hitting typical targets such as getting out of debt, buying a home, giving more to church or charity, saving for retirement, etc. Many people get a job, get that paycheck (especially if it is a bigger one than before), and just mindlessly spend their money. Some may have the discipline to sit down and pay all of their bills first, but then every dollar after that is fair game. Keep doing this for a long time, and you’ll all of a sudden realize that your income is not enough, which leads to using credit to fill the gaps.