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Budget

Personal Finance

What Is a Budget and Why Do You Need One?

by Evan

For years you’ve overheard the word “Budget” in many conversations and know of its importance. If you’re not quite sure what a budget is and whether or not it’s something you need, read on below. 

The Purpose of a Budget 

In simple terms, a budget is a list of your accumulated debt and recurring expenses placed against your net income. In short, a budget lets you track your spending and helps you to make better financial decisions based on the findings. If your food bill is high, you’ll find ways to reduce it. If you spend a lot of money on frivolous items, you cut back.

Why Do I Need a Budget? 

You may ask yourself “Why do I need a budget?” The answer is easy. You need a budget to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle now and in your retirement. A budget is very revealing. It lets you focus on areas that need work, like maxed out credit cards and gives you a true understanding of where you spend your money. 

How Can I Benefit from a Budget? 

With a comprehensive listing of your recurring expenses and accumulated debt, you can start the process of reducing or eliminating some of your expenses and work towards paying down your debt. When you know the exact amount of income you have and have balanced that against the amount of your monthly debt, you’ll know the amount of money you have left over to work with. In some cases, people find out that they simply have more debt obligations than they have income. When this happens, you have two choices. You can either bring in more money or unload some of your expenses. If you have a mortgage and equity in your home you can refinance the loan or, if that’s not a possibility, there are installment loans online that offer small monthly repayments. 

How Do You Create a Budget? 

Creating a budget is easy. First, gather up all your bills. Then, you can either go old school and write them down on a sheet of paper, or download and print out a budgeting form from one of the many apps available for free online. Or, if you prefer, you can purchase budgeting software. There are several types of budgets from which to choose, with each having a variation in the percentage of money allocated to certain areas. It’s best to review a few before committing to one to see which one works best for you. 

The Short and Long-Term Benefits 

Once you start a budget you’ll begin to get smart with your money. You’ll know exactly the amount you have left at the end of each month. As a result, you will divide a portion of the net surplus into places such as a savings account, college fund, retirement, and a vacation. Putting steady amounts of money away each month helps you grow financial wealth and security. When a repair comes along, you have the money in place to cover it. When it’s time for children to go off to college, you have money set aside to assist with the fees. And, when you need to get away, you can book a trip to your desired destination. 

Credit Triumph 

When you stick to a budget, your bills get paid on time and your debt slowly dwindles away. A positive event occurs during this process: your credit score begins to move up each month until it levels off at an excellent score of beyond 800. Having stellar credit makes it easy to secure financing, lease a car or buy one at the lowest interest rates and have access to any cell phone or insurance company you want. 

A household budget is something everyone should have in place. It makes life easier and lets you enjoy the benefits of an excellent credit score and financial security in your retirement. 

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Personal Finance

Splurge Without Breaking Your Budget

by Evan

Life is all about choices, decisions, and balance. Because you work hard, you should be able to treat yourself to some of life’s indulgences along the way. Don’t deny yourself the added little extras that make your life that much sweeter just because you are on a budget. There are plenty of budget-friendly ways to allow you to indulge and strike a balance between work and play (or whatever your vice or indulgence might be).

After an especially trying day, it’s not uncommon to feel like you need to treat yourself to some retail therapy. That’s not to say you should buy everything you want. Instead, stay true to your financial situation and stay in control. Learn how to make allowances to get the things you want, without suffering any type of monetary setbacks. For example, that package locker for home deliveries, for example, might seem like an extravagance, but if it saves you the hassle and cost of having to re-order packages that have been taken from your porch, isn’t that worth the expense?

Self Care

Everybody defines treating themselves with ordinary expenditures differently. Basically, anything outside your realm of normalcy that brings you some level of enjoyment or stress relief should be considered a treat. When budgeting for special allowances, don’t limit yourself to tangible items. If you already have a closet overflowing with shoes, because shoe shopping is what you do when you feel stressed out, why not seek another form of stress relief? Book yourself a trip to the spa and enjoy a nice massage or round of acupuncture that relaxes both your mind and your body. Budget for a healthy treat with benefits to your physical as well as mental health.

If you are feeling fed up and frustrated with certain aspects of your work or personal life, why not find a gym? Release some endorphins and expel your frustrations though doing laps in the pool or participating in an exercise class.

Free Treats

What can be more budget-friendly than something that doesn’t cost you a penny? For some people, their budgets aren’t fluid enough to allow for escapes as often as they would need or like. That doesn’t mean they don’t need a break or a treat, it just means they need to find alternate ways to unwind and spoil themselves. Sometimes the simplest of treats can be the most relaxing. 

When you need to escape the weight of reality that is consuming you, there are several free options available. Here are a few examples:

  • Lose yourself within a good book. 
  • Find a quiet, cozy place to curl up and nap.
  • Visit a good friend.
  • Have a peaceful soak in the tub.
  • Color in an adult coloring book.
  • Keep a journal.
  • Enjoy popcorn and a movie on the couch.

Seeking indulgent rest and relaxation doesn’t necessarily equate to time spent alone. As much as kids can drive you crazy at times, don’t discount the priceless effects of their infectious laughter. Have a look at local free events and take your family on new adventures. Grab the dog and the kids and head to the park. Rediscover your inner child and play an interactive game. Above all, laugh!

Maybe you are one of those lucky people who find cleaning a way to alleviate stress. If that’s the case, find a cluttered closet you’ve been wanting to organize for months and have at it. If you have unfinished projects around the house, complete them. There isn’t much that is more satisfying than checking things off of that never-ending mental list that can make you feel otherwise unaccomplished.

Striking a balance between work and play; necessity and indulgent; hectic and peaceful; is no easy feat. Learning to strike that balance and stay within your budget is a priceless tool in the armory of life.

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Personal Finance

What in the Hell is Up with the Cable TV Industry? Finally Cutting the Cord

by Evan

There is something fundamentally wrong with the cable tv industry as it is operating in 2020. After years of thinking about it, the ineptness and unnecessary fees finally got me to cut the cord.

My History with Verizon FIOS and Altice One (Cablevision)

In 2013 when I bought my second home, we went with Verizon FIOS and used them for the entire time 6 years we were there. We never had an issue with service, but like clockwork every 18 months I would have to call up and threaten to quit, and every, single time my price would come down to around what I was previous paying. It was extremely frustrating but felt like part of the process.

When we moved to the current home Verizon screwed up the move order so bad I may have lost my cool with a customer service rep., which I normally do not do. It was a disaster which could have cost my family a lot of money. We put in the move order, Verizon took down the wrong address, and on the day of the install despite being 1.5 miles away, the tech wouldn’t come here to install and then gave me an install date 4 or 5 days later. It was at this point I may have lost it and told them to “forget everything.” Those words apparently triggered their system to cancel the move order and the service (as opposed to just leaving me in limbo for a few days when I searched for a competitor). For most people, this wouldn’t be a problem. However, connected to that account was The Wife’s business phone number which she has had since 2005ish. Granted with e-mail it may not have been the end of the world, but nonetheless it could have caused a major problem.

So, I attempted to get them to give me just the phone service which they wouldn’t do because it was crossing area code lines (they perform that “courtesy” when the customer is also getting TV/internet). I had to scramble. I figured out that at one time in the past my parents had FIOS so I had a technician come out and install a phone line at my parents just so I could then send it to MagicJack. I did it and I was done with FIOS and was on Altice One’s double play (TV/Internet) with MagicJack controlling the home phone number.

This led to 5 months of MagicJack and Altice One. I was paying $125/mo for Altice One which included way too many channels that I didn’t care about and 200mbs internet service and $50 or so a year for Magic Jack. Notwithstanding the ease of everything being set up I was unhappy because the internet service was not living up to the speed that was being promised, and The Wife was unhappy because she missed Verizon’s interface. This led to a phone call with Verizon.

My Recent Experience with Verizon FIOS and Finally Cutting the Cord

I was told by the Verizon Rep that I would be getting approximately the same channels, I mentioned some of the main ones, and they said “of course.” The tech, who was very nice, spent about 3 hours wiring my entire house, and we were off. I quickly found out that the matched price wasn’t going to work because I needed to use their router for $15/mo if I was going to use DVR and On Demand – which of course I am since it is 2020! So now I quickly jumped from $125 to $140. Fine, not a massive deal I would be getting 1gb instead of 200mbps not that I am convinced it would matter but at this point, I decided I was in too deep. I am going to skip over the WiFi Password 1 hour on hold debacle that also occurred.

I went out that night and came home to find that I didn’t have some very basic channels like TBS, TNT and ESPN. Not amazing channels now that the NFL season is near end, but just weird to pay $1,680/yr not to have. This lead to a phone call that caused me to cut the cord. To get all the channels I had I needed to go up to $170/mo! What?! I was fine at $125 a week ago. But it was during that call I was finally able to verbalize my real problem with cable tv companies in 2020.

They are charging for unnecessary hardware. Why do I need to pay them $20/mo for a cable box? I just need the internet into my home and everything else can be handled on the cloud.

Verizon FIOS was charging me $20/mo for 2 boxes, and then another $20 for their DVR service and $15 for their router. That is $55/mo in charges that just don’t make sense in 2020! It was at this point I told them to shut down the TV service. They made the argument that their TV service was equal to Hulu’s in pricing, and they are correct until we add in the unnecessary hardware! It was that realization that made the jump easy.

My Current Television Set Up and The Costs Behind it

I am approximately 24 hours into this, so it is likely to change, but right now I am pretty happy writing this post.

First thing is that I picked up Hulu Live. I quickly chose that service over the others simply because my smart TV had a free one week trial so I figured why not? I actually signed up with this service while still on the phone with the CSR from Verizon. This week I’ll have to do a little deeper research on the right service for us (we already have NetFlix and Disney+ so that is sunk costs which was on the tab regardless). I think YouTubeTV may be something to look into.

The second move was to go from 1gig service back down to 200mbs service. We had it for the past 6 months with zero buffering issues. That may change as we go forward, but as long as I buy the right hardware (discussed below) increasing the bandwidth is a flick of the switch on Fios.

The internet service is $40/mo and Hulu is $55 – so I am going from $140/mo (or $125/mo or $170/mo depending on the number we use) down to $95. Life changing amount? Not at all, but I always felt like I was getting ripped off so even beyond the money this feels like a win.

The only thing I have left to figure out is the hardware. I think I am going to spend about $200 to $250 in hardware costs (figuring out Router w/modem vs Modem w/mesh) which will work for years without paying $15/mo for hardware costs. The crossover is pretty easy to figure out.

We’ll see where we land with this world, but I am excited to drop off their rip off boxes!

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Personal Finance

How to Treat Yourself and Stick to Your Budget

by Evan

We all need to stick to our monthly budgets no matter what. However, you should still leave room each month to treat yourself to an extra something. Here are some of the ways you can make sure that you stay on track while still allowing yourself your little extras.

Set Limits

One of the easiest ways to treat yourself and still stay on budget is to put a limit on what you can buy. For example, if you have a sweet tooth, you might decide that you are allowed to buy one box of chocolates for the month. If they run out, they run out and you can’t buy any more until the next month comes around.

You can even set these sorts of limits when you are playing games online. The right site like NetBet UK will be able to offer you controls over the amount you are depositing to play with. This means that you will never be able to lay down too much money and you can keep yourself and your spending on track.

Wait for Sales

If you have your eye on an expensive new item, you should always try to wait for a sale before you buy it. There is no better feeling than grabbing something at a fraction of its usual price. Make sure you do your research to find out exactly when the ideal time of year is; some shopping events like Black Friday do not always offer as good a deal as they might claim.

The advantage of waiting for a sale also gives you the chance to mull over the purchase. Will it be worthwhile or will it be something you use once and then put away in a cupboard? We live in a world where consumerism is frequently getting out of hand. If you know for a fact that you won’t get use out of the purchase, you should take a look for an alternative which you know you will use.

Compare Brands in the Supermarket

Food shopping can be one place where you can easily pick up some savings. Take a look at your current food shop and try to work out if there are any places where you could substitute a food product for something cheaper. For example, your favourite type of biscuit might be a lot cheaper if you decide to buy the supermarket own-brand over the named one.

You might even want to switch supermarket. Don’t be mistaken in thinking a more expensive supermarket means higher quality ingredients. You might be able to find the food you enjoy for the same quality and an even better price.

Treating yourself to the things you love the most while sticking to your budget might seem hard at first. However, with a little work, you should be able to get into a good routine of buying yourself cheap and cheerful treats so you can indulge in something extra without blowing the bank. Take a look at some places you could make cuts to your budget without sacrificing your current lifestyle.

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Personal Finance

Enviable Money Management Habits that Yield Great Long Term Benefits

by Guest Post

Earning a 6-figure income is not possible for everyone. Therefore, it is always considered wise to make the best out of what is at hand. We have read about the wealthiest people in the world having some habits that make them so unique and well, rich. It is their habits that make them what they are today. The reason behind their fortune is certain financial habits that they have been following, which have yielded them long term benefits. Here are some of their enviable money management habits that will teach you organizing and managing your finance.

Planning a Budget and Making Everything Automatic

Budget is the most fundamental unit of any management. A budget helps you in knowing your capabilities of paying and earning and affordability, on the whole. According to various studies, women are very efficient budget planners as it is their natural and inherent quality. Common housewives have mastered this skill and run their households with the utmost smoothness. Learning the art of setting a budget is very resourceful especially when you wish to establish better financial management in your life. Besides, taking advantage of e-facilities is also very helpful. Making your payments automated by linking them with your savings accounts, so none of your bills go unpaid, is considered as a more user-friendly way of money management.

Always Keeping a Track of What You Are Earning and What You are Spending

It is not like you do not wish to save money. The only thing is that you do not know the right way to do it. More often than not, there is just one means of earning in many people’s lives, so it is easier to know how much you receive though; it is difficult to keep a track of the expenditure. Many successful businessmen and personalities have people working for them to keep a check on their income and expenses. As an individual, you may not be able to afford an entire department of employees to work on your account; however, you can do your bit by keeping bills of everything you purchase. This is the simplest way of tracking your money.

Clearing off Debts for Moving Towards a More Organized Finance

Managing money does not only benefit you financially, but also makes you march towards financial success. One of the first things you must do before investing your money anywhere is clear off all the debts that you have on yourself. Debt-freedom makes you feel stress-free and doesn’t disturb your income immensely. If you don’t have any debts, you are off to a good start already, however, if you do, start clearing them by paying a little, every month, as soon as you get your salary.

Exploring New Ways for Increasing Your Income

It has been found that doing a freelancing job can fetch you more money than doing a fulltime job. Since you are the one who decides how much you want to work and you are the boss of your own pay, you tend to be less stressed out and more focused. It is always better to increase your earnings instead of spending way little than what is required and putting everything into savings. It is not humanly possible. Killing your present desires for securing your future, will disturb your present, which is practically incorrect. Part time jobs work great in such cases. Working online for two to three hours every day will also bring you a better income.

Sketching the End Results of Everything You Do In Your Head First

Money management becomes better if you know where you are heading. Draw a sketch in your head about what will lead to what before actually getting your hands into the job. Wrong investments can make you suffer from even deeper regrets. Study the market a little before investing in any kind of mutual funds or policies. Refer to an expert, if you think you are dense about economics. Also, familiarize yourself with various financial settlement tools like, structured settlement, an injury insurance claim that helps you receive full medical expenses, periodically or all at once, in severe cases of accidents known as catastrophic accidents.

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