{"id":10123,"date":"2024-01-12T16:16:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-13T00:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/?p=10123"},"modified":"2024-03-05T14:31:08","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T22:31:08","slug":"how-to-create-a-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/blog\/how-to-create-a-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Create A Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"co-flex_row co-flex_row__blue co-flex_row__last co-flex_row__long-form-text\" >\n\t<div class=\"co-flex_row--row co-row\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"co-long_form\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"co-long_form--block co-long_form--block__nomedia prow items-start \">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"co-long_form--text pcol-md:8\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"co-long_form--content\"><h2>How To Create A Budget<\/h2>\n<p>Once you\u2019ve decided it\u2019s time to create a budget, or get back on track with an updated spending plan, you\u2019ll have more than a few options to choose from. You can go old school and use notebooks or spreadsheets to stay organized, or you can grab your laptop, phone or tablet and investigate budgeting apps. All of these can be effective ways to keep track of your spending and saving as you begin the extremely satisfying journey of telling your money what to do every month.<\/p>\n<p>The best thing about a budget is that it\u2019s flexible enough that it can be tweaked to fit your individual needs from month to month. The important thing is that sticking with whatever method you choose brings more awareness to your financial life, offering a realistic picture of how much is coming into and leaving your accounts month-to-month.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Choosing a Budget Method<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Budgeting methods are not one-size-fits-all. For example, people who consistently spend less than they earn and who already have an emergency fund and retirement accounts, will likely need a different method of budgeting than someone who is just getting started. Those of us who are still striving to take control of our finances so we can whittle away at credit card debt and build up an emergency cushion will likely want to start with a more basic budget. Here are a few approaches to consider:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><span class=\"bold\">The Backwards Budget<\/span> <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Backwards Budget has three steps. First, save for your goals in a dedicated savings account or investment account(s). Second, pay for your needs: Rent, groceries, internet, cell phone bill, student loans, etc. And third, enjoy anything in the \u201cwants\u201d category with whatever money you have left over \u2014 dinners out, vacations, new clothing, the sky\u2019s the limit because you chose to take care of your top two life priorities first.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><span class=\"bold\">The Zero-Sum Budget<\/span> <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you like equations that work out just right, zero-sum budgeting might be right for you. With this budget, you essentially subtract every dollar you spend or save from your starting amount of take-home pay. That means you\u2019re in charge of finding a specific purpose for every single dollar you earn, (whether it\u2019s rent, a savings account, your investment portfolio or dinner out) and at the end of each month, you\u2019ll total everything up and find that every single cent has a home. So if you started with $2,000 at the beginning of the month, you\u2019d be left with $0.00 unaccounted for by the time the 31st rolls around, hence the name.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span class=\"bold underline\"><strong>The 50\/30\/20 budget<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This budget is similar to the others in that you\u2019re thinking about how the three most important categories of your budget\u00a0 \u2014 needs, savings, and wants \u2014 will be covered. But this budget assigns an exact percentage of your earnings to each category, which is how it gets its name. Here&#8217;s an example: Needs (50%), Wants (30%), Savings (20%). It\u2019s okay if you\u2019re off by a few dollars every month, the goal here is that you\u2019re thinking about each category of your budget and as long as you stay in line with your bigger goals, then you\u2019re doing great!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Sticking to the Budget<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Whichever budget you choose, sticking to it is no easy task, but it is an enormously satisfying one. Telling your money where to go each month gives you feelings of control, power and independence.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, for those who prefer the ease that technology offers, there is a plethora of <a href=\"https:\/\/hermoney.com\/save\/banking\/how-to-find-the-budgeting-app-thats-right-for-you\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mobile apps and budgeting software<\/a> to help manage your finances. You can use these with the budgeting techniques mentioned above, or on their own. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nerdwallet.com\/article\/finance\/best-budget-apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nerdwallet<\/a> named eight companies to its list of best budget apps in 2022. For most of these, the app can connect with financial accounts, plus categorize and track spending. These apps are: Mint, YNAB, Goodbudget, EveryDollar, Personal Capital, PocketGuard, Honeydue and Fudget.<\/p>\n<\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Telling your money where to go each month gives you a feeling of control and helps you plan for the future. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/blog\/how-to-create-a-budget\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":10124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-finances"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10123"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10275,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10123\/revisions\/10275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}