Are there effective ways to manage home budgets? Will these tips include quick fixes for bad or tight money situations? Are there fast answers and solutions? The answers are NO!
There are not simple nor quick fixes to manage home budgets. To successfully manage money requires time, money, self-awareness, self-control of money, and a delayed gratification mentality.
Spending those dollars faster than they can be calculated as withdrawals will keep money problems alive and will do nothing to solve them. Controlling money is as much about self-awareness, self-control, impulsive education, and emotional education. How are these things important and what do they have to do with controlling and spending money?
Many adults complain because they struggle to make ends monthly. As soon as one month ends of every bill being paid - it is time - once again to recalculate and budget the bills and buy the necessities. It seems like a never ending cycle of stress, worries, and woes with no permanent end in sight to pay off bills and get out of debt.
If one invests dedicated time of internet research for financial help, credit score management, and how to live frugally within our salaries - it can be greatly beneficial to each home.
However, it can also be depressing or even provoke anger. Why?
Because the cost of salaries does not increase at the same rate of our economy.
Homes, vehicles, groceries, utilities, healthcare and the general cost of living in America is not fairly equated on our Gross versus our Net pay. Taxes seem to be the working person's greatest enemy.
But how can we overcome this? We accept what we can change. We make peace with things we can not change. We admit our responsibility to do right - even when - others do not!
If our Net income states we have $2000 a month to live on. It is our job to live within that $2000 a month income and not the government's business.
So be law-abiding and responsible with accountability anyways! For the rewards of doing what is right will always be more favorable than doing anything bad to play games ever will be. Honesty is always the best policy that does pay the highest rewards and this is never evidenced more than when spending money wisely and then when lying about money to live falsely. How you manage or spend money will tell on the character of the person you really are. So what would money say about us?
Many people who have fortunate incomes that supplies their needs and wants will advocate for investing into stocks, bonds, savings, and other methods to invest money to reap profits.
However, for the average family of two working adults - they are lucky to be able to barely afford the extra money that allows their children to participate in sports or have the opportunity to go to college and participate in many of the extracurricular activities in school - that most - just do not have.
So how can one make the most of their money and invest as a poor person? How can one effectively manage home budgets? Imagine if every bill you have - that you must pay - is a business account.
How would you manage it? Would you pay an invoice for your job or would you throw it away knowing that it could get you fired? Then don't play around with home budgets either. For the sting of a bad credit report is not something you want to taint when you can control it.
If home budgets were professional accounts that our boss judged our work performance on - would it speak favorably of our financial skills or would we look completely incompetent? Are our accounts organized? Are our accounts listed neatly by due date and organized that a stranger could come in to audit our finances easily?Or would we be searching, digging, and worrying about the documents we can't find that are needed?
This is what home budget management is all about! Our business! Our livelihood! A greater reflection of our true skills than any we possess or display on the job! Are we making improvements? Are we trying? Or do we simply just do whatever and when those bill collectors call - we ignore them?
Healthcare is the only aspect of our financial life that we can not control. No one chooses to be sick. No one chooses for their thyroid, pancreas, kidneys, heart, or organs to fail them from normal operations or other health conditions that arise.
No one chooses to decide on the most necessity of health treatments versus letting other ailments go. But in the real USA where incomes are not efficient and taxes are not fair - each much articulate their financial plan and budget that works with their income to afford them the best quality of life by being honest - even when - managing the more serious of their medical conditions versus the smaller ones. Health is one weakness that each will experience financially in their life. This can make or break an income. Many doctors advocate for fast fixes and many medical conditions have NO fast fixes. So be wise. Learn and do your own research! Learn alternative methods that work slower to improve medical symptoms - but are cheaper and more effective. And never be afraid to get a second opinion! Some doctors are truly only in the profession for the money and health insurance companies are always open to take your money for their business too! Make no mistake that healthcare is a business operation. So research and learn ways to help your self medically also.
Become organized and use the internet to help you manage your accounts! Most companies allow account management online to pay bills and schedule payments for free.
One must have a debit/credit card or checking account to sign up for free. If you have bad credit/debit or checking account experiences that have tainted your credit. Then you can only be patient.
It takes 5 years from multiple closed accounts of bad banking experiences to be cleared - before - you can get a new checking/savings accounts.
It takes 7 years to rebuild credit after having a vehicle repossession. But paying your bills monthly and on time with a secured credit card can speed the process up of recovering from bad debt.
Most won't tell you this because banks and lawyers make money off of bankruptcy! Learn ways to use the system that works for your bad financial situation. Don't buy the first bill of sale of advice they sale you because it may not be in the best interest of your budget, incomes, and medical conditions.
Electronics payments can be input as one time payment submissions or as monthly payments. Sign up and have peace of mind that your bills are paid and the companies know they can trust you to keep doing business with you! To keep your information safe - close the tab - after you sign out of an account. When tabs are left open - they keep the back door open to hackers of your information. Close the tab and you close the eyes of intruders and internet hackers.
Create an organized paper system to manage your bills monthly. Do not rely on electronic storing of personal information of your accounts. As this allows hackers opportunities to access your account when your device is still connected to the internet.
Some people use an envelope method. Some use auto draft payments based on their incomes of monthly - biweekly or weekly paychecks. But whatever you use - make sure you are organized to have paper copies and use a paper filing system to keep your online accounts secure.
Create a simple tracking system of your monthly bills. You can use a cheap and small photo album and index cards. A $2,00 investment at the Dollar Tree to manage your accounts! Most waste that money on a can of soda, movies, or other frivolous stuff - even a poor person can afford this method!
Cut the index card to album size. Write the bill company name - account number - account contact phone number - due date - payment amount - Internet Log In and Internet Password on each index card. Arrange these bill paying cards into the album by their due dates. It's an easy and cheap Rolodex for bill management.
Then write on a desk calendar - ($1.00 at the Dollar Tree) - the bill name and amount for the date they are due. Then write on the calendar the pay dates you have and the estimated paycheck amounts.
Hang this calendar up on the wall where you keep your bills and manage your accounts. This way you will have a visual reminder. You will know what bill is due. When you flip through your photo album Rolodex - it runs with your calendar.
This helps to juggle the bills and juggles the paydays for extra overtime money or annual bill reminders also. The invoices or bill statements can be put in filing storage. Most bills are repetitive. This system helps you stay on top of it - instead of - having 20 sheets of paper to go through for 20 bills. They are organized in 20 slots of a photo album. By using a photo album and index cards - you can keep updating as your bills change. It helps to improve your money skills by paying before the due date. This methods teaches you options through organization that you may not know existed when using the calendar due dates with pay dates to help you better manage your money also.
My grandmother used a notebook that she kept her monthly bills in and a calendar inside the notebook. She mailed her bills in monthly and her method worked for her. But with technology and each income - our methods must change that works best for our bills. There are so many ways to become organized to manage money better that is merely one suggestion of thousands on the internet.
Many times in the corporate world, one will see all the electronic software programs that manage numerous accounts with electronic and paper filing systems that makes our home budgets look minimal in comparison. However, when money is involved - there is no such thing as minimal! For the way accounts are organized and monitored and paid do matter from the largest of accounts to the smallest.
Each home has accounts payable and accounts receivable. But we won't hear the corporate world discussing this with regular people - will we? Why is that?
Your bills that you pay are your accounts payable! Your income that pays your bills is your accounts receivable!
But most never think of our personal finances and home budgets in this way. Why? Because somewhere in the hierarchy of people's incomes - lifestyles - education or lack of - and the communities we live in or the influences we keep ~ we desensitize the importance of money management by the income that one has. We want people to believe that some are smarter than others - based on the money they manage. But one who manages $20,000 yearly income is just as a smart as a person who makes $50,000 when they manage it responsibly and honestly!
A $1.00 bill is just as valuable to a rich person - as it is a poor person. However, a $1.00 bill will be spent differently by both. The way each manages money will create the differences of positive or negative effects and make enemies of people. But it shouldn't. Sadly, it does. But if we used rich people's terms to discuss our less than nominal incomes - it closes the bridge of financial intelligence - now doesn't it? For financial experts claim their fame to manage 50 accounts payable and 20 accounts receivable a month - while most - working class will manage 20 accounts payable and 4 accounts receivable at home each month! Not much differences in the terms of money talk - huh?
For a person who makes $20,000 a year is limited by their $20,000 a year income! That's the maximum of what their life can afford them. It is has zero bearing on who they are as a person. It just means they have more financial skills - in a sense - than someone who manages $1 million dollars. How is that?
For $1 million buys chances, opportunities, and fortunes of 1 million times.
$20,000 will only buy 20,000 chances, opportunities, and fortunes. So one has to learn to do more with less and in this essence - it does and will make them more financially smarter! You can bank on it!
But if we looked at people by their income for the opportunities they could do - we realize - just how limited people truly become. The math of money will not add up that a $20,000 income will afford the same lifestyle as $1 million dollars will. So what can a person do?
Be real and appreciate the 20,000 of the $1 bills you do have. Consider ways to spend and live differently. Budget differently. Learn to control and manage your expenses. Look at the utilities you use in your home to find ways to make cuts and save money. There is no shame in living minimally in one area of your life - so you can afford to live better in other ways!
Respect the financial differences with others. Realize that most who appear to have more money - usually will overcompensate with material possessions and luxuries and be just as in debt and in misery with their thousands or millions of dollars - as you are negatively impacted by your pennies.
Managing money requires a lot of discipline and skills to manage a $20,000 yearly income - but it is not impossible! Analyze. Organize. Compromise. Be frugal. Learn how to appreciate being a minimalist. Be happy when your 20 accounts of monthly bills are paid. Look forward to keep paying your bills. Celebrate when your bills decrease because you took the time to plan and give commitment to decreasing them or paying them off.
Most compare their life with those who have more money and will give up trying to manage their money because they don't own a blackberry or an expensive software or mobile app to do it for them. But it is as simple as using creative methods on a tight budget to organize, analyze, and keep those bills paid and to pay them off!
Not every effective method that works for one person's income will work for another. But don't give up on learning new skills that helps you make peace with your income, the lifestyle you can afford, and above all - admit your errors with money and stop doing them. Denying you have debt and horrible spending habits will not fix the problem. So be honest. Because money will never reveal an honest trait about your character - until your actions prove it! That's how money and math will never lie ~ even when - people do and will!
And never let the total money of income of another fool you. If they make $50,000 a year - that means they have more headache of money than you do and more pennies to be honest about. Jealously, bitterness, resentment, and anger toward money will not help you to become a better financial manager at home - only you make the choice to do that ~
