Here’s Why?
There are plenty of financial gurus and all of them advocate the same thing: build a budget. What they preach – can sometimes be confusing because their budgeting style may not be the same as yours. There is no one glove that fits all budgeting models that you can strictly follow.
This is a common misconception that many will struggle with at the beginning of their journey.
Since we are talking about people that are in the incipient phases of their path to financial freedom, we are talking about building a budgeting style that can help tackle down debt. That is one of the primary objectives. The core principles are however the same. You need to save as much as you can by cutting down expenses. Some expenses you will not be able to cut down but you can make plenty of tweaks here and there.
For example – you can look at swapping your internet provider to get a better deal. How about getting a cheaper mobile subscription, try becoming frugal with your use of utilities, and be a whole lot more mindful with your grocery shopping.
The expenses that you cannot remove from your monthly expenses are debt. Your whole budgeting style should also be built around saving as much money as possible. This may be done in order to pay down debt starting from the smallest one to the largest one.
WHY IS IT THAT YOU CANNOT USE SOMEONE ELSE’S BUDGET MODEL?
The reason why your budgeting style is different is that you do not have the same expenses as everyone else out there. For example, you may have more mouths to feed, or, you may have a larger mortgage that needs to be paid every single month. Some may have student loans while other may have car loans or credit cards or line of credits of differing types. There are plenty of variables that make your budget different from someone else.
You should also have a safety margin in your budget which can be a dedicated amount of money that can be used for unplanned expenses such as a night out, clothing, etc. We all need that break sometimes too – don’t we!
THE THING TO TAKE HOME…
Budgeting can be difficult. This is a harsh reality for some of us. In fact – it may be good to enlist a trusted partner or friend to help us on the journey out of debt.
If someone says you can follow their budgeting model and be fine, you may be just a bit naïve. However though – if they state or claim that their budgeting principles – [emphasis on principles] – can apply to you as well, they may very well be right. Like the chinese proverb says – walk a mile in a man’s shoes – and you’ll know what he is going through.
Your starting point can be the building of a list of your monthly expenses. You should always know where your money goes. Additionally also have a plan for where it is supposed to go (budget-plan) if not you’ll never have a sense of being able to get on top of things. With that list at hand, you will need to tweak and try to save with every little expense that you have on your list. If you are living paycheck to paycheck, you can certainly build a budgeting style that allows you to start saving money.
Call up the help of a trusted expert. Some of the better experts are those who would have gone through what you went through. For a really low budget solution – you can maximise the use of wifi hotspots – rather than watching mind-numbing social media statuses – you can consider watching a financial video.
Again you should do your checks when watching these videos.