Budget

Creating A Budget From Irregular Income

If you have irregular income and/or you are self-employed, you may think that creating a budget is difficult. The reality is, creating a budget based on irregular income can be relatively simple. 1. Due to the irregular nature of your income, you need a relatively substantial “emergency fund”. As the amount of income you receive each month fluctuates, you will…

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Budget, Goals

Creating a Personal Finance Goal

I love to create goals for myself. I’ve created goals for my websites (number of subscribers, revenue, etc), my health (weight loss, miles walked, etc.), and my finances (debt repayment, emergency fund savings, etc.) Currently, I have a goal of saving $4000 before April 1, 2007 for my children’s Educational Savings Accounts. (The actual long-term goal is to save enough…

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Budget

Budgeting By Percentages Does Not Work

The one thing that stands out to me when I read personal finance books is how they “generalize” about budget category percentages. Most authors will advise that you spend “x percent on housing, y percent on food, and z percent on clothing.” The plain truth is, simply using generic percentages does not work. To build a quality, accurate, usable budget,…

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