Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Personal Finance Budgeting: Importance of a Personal Budget

Importance of a Personal Budget

In my last few posts I have been writing about a personal finance advising expert by the name of Dave Ramsey. I have gone over his Debt Snowball Debt Reduction Plan, Financial Peace University, and even done a short review of the Dave Ramsey Radio Show. What I have been trying to do is give you a bit of good information about financial advisor Dave Ramsey so that you will begin to listen to his radio show/visit his website and learn how to make a change in your life. Once equipped with all of the information Mr. Ramsey provides you will be ready to attack your debts and begin to live a life of financial peace, financial freedom, and financial prosperity.

Today I wanted to give you all some more great financial advising information from financial advisor Dave Ramsey. The topic I am going to discuss today is Personal Finance Budgeting. I have already addressed this topic several times on my blog but I don't think my readers understand how important personal finance budgeting is. This piece of advice is something almost any financial advisor would give you and is one of the basic building blocks of financial freedom.

Unless you make a personal budget and set up your personal budget worksheet (personal budget template) you will never be able to begin your quest for financial freedom and financial peace. A personal budget is essentially a set of training wheels and financial advising tool that helps steer you in the right path. For some it is necessary to keep a personal budget worksheet for your entire lives and for others a personal budget worksheet is not needed after a few years of learning how to spending your money properly.

I am going to repeat this again because most people just do not get it.

Personal finance budgeting is one of the most basic building blocks to financial freedom and you will not be successful in your quest for financial freedom without following this financial advising tip and starting your own personal budget.

Now that you should have that drilled into your head I am going to elaborate on the personal budget. When people here the "B" word they often cringe and want to stay as far from it as possible. Usually they will even run as fast as they can from a financial advisor that suggests that they make one. I am here to tell you that a making a personal budget is not really as bad as people say that it is and it can be done with just a small bit of work.

The real resistance comes from those that see a personal budget worksheet as a trap that forces them to live a certain way and restricts their freedom. I find it funny that the same people that see a personal budgeting plan as a restriction or also the ones that go out and rack up a ton of credit card debit and end up restricting themselves because they have to put all their money toward credit card payments.

I am here to tell all of you readers that cringe at the word budget that personal budgeting is merely a way of spending your money with intent. Instead of aimlessly spending your money on whatever you choose at the spur of the moment personal budget planning helps you to have everything planned out so that you do not spend more money than you make. Your personal budget may seem like it is hard to follow and restrictive at first but once it allows you to save money and move away from reliance on credit cards it will actually provide you with more financial freedom than you ever thought possible.

When you start your personal budgeting worksheet/template you should wait 4-6 months for it to start working. When you are first setting up a personal budget you will most likely forget about necessary expenses and budget incorrectly for certain things. In 4-6 months time you should be able to work out the kinks and your personal budget worksheet will nearly mirror your actual spending.

Once you have your personal budget set up you need to stick with. The point where most people fail is right here. Anybody can set up their personal budgeting template with ease but the real test comes in sticking to it each month. If you can stick to your personal finance budgeting plan then I promise you that you will feel and see more financial freedom in your life.

I hope that after the constant rehashing on this subject you will begin to understand that a personal budget is one of the most important step in achieving financial freedom, financial peace, and financial prosperity. Without it you cannot even begin to pay off debts and save money because you cannot track and properly allocate your income.

Do yourself a huge favor today and open up a notebook and begin working on your personal budget worksheet. Its not hard and it is completely free to start your personal budget worksheet. You could easily sit down in the next hour and have a very good personal budget in working order.

In my next article I am going to go over some of the top personal budgeting mistakes that people make which cause them to either fail or quit on their personal budget plan. If you need any free assistance regarding your budget feel free to email me and I will be happy to help.

-Jesse

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