I am a firm believer in making things simple. The more complicated things get the more I want to give up.
Life is complicated enough, let's help each other make things simple.
Are you in?
I believe we overthink and overcomplicated personal finance. I believe in investing and good insurance. I believe in minimizing risk (i.e. debt) and growing your assets but I do think we are missing a HUGE part of personal finance when we only talk about investing, insurance and assets.
Personal finance should start with YOUR goals.
What do you want to do with the income you have?
What do you want YOUR life to look like 5 or 10 years from now?
What do you want to teach your children about money?
How much money do you want to give and help others?
We set goals first. Allow your goals to guide you and motivate you. This simple shift has changed the way we live.
RELATED. HOW TO SET FINANCIAL GOALS YOU CAN ACTUALLY REACH
Along the way, we created a the no-brainer budget that continues to keep us on track each month and help us work towards our goals.
We created this form in a PDF. It's FREE just for you!
We think you can create an easy budget in 5 minutes or less! Don't over think it! You can do it.
MINUTE ONE - GOALS
The first box is your goal box. Write down some goals for your money. If you have nothing left over after your expenses, consider making a goal of paying off all your debt or finding creative ways to increase your income.
Maybe you need a set a goal of bringing in a few hundred dollars more in income each month?
Do you have a vacation you'd love to go on? Set a goal to save a little each month in a separate savings account until you reach your goal.
MINUTE TWO- INCOME
In the next box, write down all your income for this month. If you have multiple streams of income, total them all up in this box. It is important to know what you are bringing in each and every month.
Add all your income together. This is YOUR NUMBER. This what you will use to pay bills and reach goals.
MINUTE THREE AND FOUR - EXPENSES
Write down all your expenses in the "expenses box". Rent, utilities, food, target runs, clothes, childcare, kids activities, healthcare. EVERYTHING. Total all that up!
MINUTE FIVE - ADD AND SUBTRACT
Total up all your expenses and subtract from your income. You DID it! You made a budget in 5 minutes!
TAKE INVENTORY........
Take a few minutes to look at your budget on paper. Don't panic. Observe.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
Is your income what you thought it would be? Is it more? or Less?
What do you want your annual income to be? Write that down.
Are you giving regularly? How much would you want to give this year? To who?
What expenses do you think are too high?
What semi-annual expenses do we have coming up? Could we save ahead for this?
What debt could I reduce this year?
How much money do I want to put in savings this month? Next month? For the year? Write that down.
You will find that writing things down on paper helps you tackle goals. It is important to get ideas out of our head and onto paper regularly. It can motivate us to take action. Write your money goals down.
A NOTE ABOUT EXPENSES......
If your expenses are more than your income, take a moment to see what expenses you can cut. Commit to cutting ONE thing this month and see how it goes.
RELATED: HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU BE SPENDING?
RELATED: HOW TO PAY OFF DEBT WHEN YOUR BUDGET IS TIGHT
Budgeting is about progress, not perfection.
Take a deep breath and do one thing at a time. You can do it! Don't give up.