​What to do NOW – Summary

Well, it’s now time to start DOING by continuously doing everything we’ve discussed.

Remember, budgeting takes time, so plan to be a bit frustrated over the next 3mths or so, BUT DON’T GIVE UP!

As long as we need money, we need to tell it where to go so that we can accomplish our goals:

1. Work through your income and expenses using the “Income” and “Expenses” worksheets. Have a look at and analyze where your money comes and goes and whether you have positive or negative cash flow.

2. If you aren’t using the Excel workbook, just add up all your income and your expenses. What’s the difference between the 2 numbers? Which one is bigger? If your expenses are MORE than your income, you have a negative cash flow – which isn’t good! You need to work on reducing your expenses or getting more income. If your expenses are LESS than your income, you have a positive cash flow, which is a good position to be in. In this case, you should still be looking at how you can get the most out of your income and putting your money to work for you.

3. Do a budget plan. Write down how much money you intend to spend on each aspect of your living – when you add this up, it should be about the same as your income (or a little less) because what you don’t ‘spend’ should be allocated to savings, investments or debt reduction.

4. Do a savings plan. This goes hand in hand with your budget, as you need to know how much money you have available to dedicate to a savings plan and you also need to know what you are saving for.

5. Start spending and living your budget! This involves going back and reviewing/analyzing your budget. Whatever you write down will not remain the same for the rest of your life. Furthermore, it will take you roughly 3 months to really have your budget to realistically match your goals and lifestyle.

Carve out the time each month to go back and review what went well, what could be improved upon, what was missing, and what went horribly wrong.

Adjust!

Easy peasy, right?

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