Ms. Perspective

sings: I know you haven’t heard my voice all month, but it’s not like your girl is running the streets, I got bills to pay and a WHOLE lot’s on my mind…

*smile* with that, let me say that I missed you, and I’m truly sorry for neglecting you!!  There has been a lot going on: Starting a new job, cleaning out my life, a new new started, and a new new ended, friends, friends’ happenings… LOL

I’m getting a headache just thinking about it again! but… I promise to catch everyone up, add a few new pieces…. so stay tuned!

My first thought…

FOR EVERYONE, especially those FRESH out of college, CREATE A BUDGET!!  I don’t think financial health is stressed enough! Your finances are not like your body…. you don’t start sneezing when your debt gets too high… and you can’t take a miracle pill to fix it! (Although… it would be nice if you could.).

The first step to getting your financial life together is to CREATE a BUDGET!!!!!

Be sure to include ALL of your spending habits!  This will give you a snapshot of how you spend on a month to month basis…. If you find that you are overspending, this also becomes a tool to help you see where you can cutback on spending (I’m not saying to CUT IT COMPLETELY… I’m saying to cut back on HOW MUCH or HOW MANY you are buying)

A typical budget would look kind of like this…

Home

Mortgage/Rent

Utilities

Cable

Groceries

Property Tax

Cable/Phone/Internet

Insurance

Maintenance

Automotive

Car note/Lease

Insurance

Parking

Gas

Permit

Maintenance

 Personal 

Student Loans

Credit Card Payments

Cellular Phone

Entertainment

Going out for lunch/dinner

Charity

Membership Dues

Miscellaneous

**** Please note that this is flexible to WHERE and HOW YOU SPEND YOUR MONEY, so customize it to YOUR needs***

Once you’ve filled in how much you spend, then add all of the expenses together and subtract it from your monthly earnings AFTER taxes.

((MONTHLY EARNINGS AFTER TAXES - total expenses from budget= how much money you have to use in ways that will help you to prepare for the future and make you financially stable))

The biggest part of this is what happens AFTER you create your budget…

STICK TO IT, LOOK FOR WAYS TO SAVE MONEY, and  START LOOKING FOR A WAY TO MAKE YOUR MONEY GROW (Stocks, CD’s, Bonds, T Bonds, Savings account, etc etc etc!!)

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