Budget Your Way to Comfort: Beginners Guide to Saving and Investing for Your Future - Softcover

Brandt, Luke

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1524608548 ISBN 13: 9781524608545

Verlag: AuthorHouse, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

Are you tired of living paycheck to paycheck? Do you want to preserve some of your hard-earned money and create a better future for you and your family? In Budget Your Way to Comfort, I'm going to help you save money and help you create a straightforward budget. I'll give you some tips to fine-tune your spending habits, help cut your living expenses, and introduce you to the world of investing in precious metals and the stock market.

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Budget Your Way to Comfort

Beginners Guide to Saving and Investing for Your Future

By Luke Brandt

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2016 Luke Brandt
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5246-0854-5

Contents

Legal Disclaimer, v, 
Preface, ix, 
Acknowledgement, xiii, 
Basic Budgeting Fundamentals, 1, 
Budget Journal, 21, 
Investing in Precious Metals, 25, 
Stock Market Portfolio, 45, 
Conclusion, 83, 
Glossary, 87, 
About the Author, 91, 

CHAPTER 1

Basic Budgeting Fundamentals

Before you can think about saving money and investing, you first have to break down your financials, and find how much money you're making, and how much money you need to pay your bills. When you're calculating your budget, you have to make sure you're writing everything down that you possibly spend your money on. I suggest you keep all your bill payments and all receipts that show what you spend weekly/monthly. This is going to be the easiest way to perfect your budget. I look how much my essential bills cost ... your electric, water, sewer, trash, heat, cable, phone, insurance, car payment, mortgage/rent and any other bills that you pay. The only thing I exclude from this calculation is the gas that goes in your vehicle and the food that goes in your cupboard/fridge. The example provided will show you the breakdown using simple numbers. You will have to plug your numbers in to the chart to begin your breakdown.

As you can see, all the numbers lined up equal to $1880.00. After you figure out the total amount for your bills, you will then divide that between four weeks of the month. Sometimes you will have five weeks in a month, and you will feel like you can go just spend extra money. But, that is a very bad decision. You need to budget properly and save that extra money. The number in the example divided by 4 weeks will be $470.00, and that is what has to be in the bank every week you get paid to pay your essential bills. If you are saying, "Luke that number is more than what I make in a week", then there has to be some other alternative. If your essential bills are going over that amount of income, then option one is to find a better primary job, option two is find a secondary job to supplement what your first job is not paying. My theory is, "If your first job is not paying the bills, then it's time to find a better job". But if you really like what you do, then add a second job. If having a second job is still not working, then an option like finding a cheaper place to live, find a roommate, or get some of your essential bills setup on a budget plan. For example if your heat bill cost $100.00/month for only 3 months of the year maybe setting up a budget with the company to divide the total of the $300 over 12 months. This is called a budget plan, some companies will work with you on a budget, and some companies won't. You would have to contact them and find out. If you're not able to meet the income for the Essential bills, it will be very difficult to get ahead. If you can pay over that Essential amount, that's a great step in the right direction.

Once you figure out your essential bill budget, you will then move on to the second step of this process called the cash carry method, which means not always using a debit/credit card. When you pay for gas and groceries, you're going to pay with cash. This is the approach I use. I know a lot of times when you go to the gas pump, you don't feel like running into the gas station. Especially when you have kids, and you have to get them out of the car and take them in with you. This takes extra time and feels like a lot of work, but this helps you with your spending habits. A lot of times, people have their bill money in their bank account and don't realize how much they are spending on their debit card and end up spending their bill money. You go in to the gas station and spend money on a soda, cookie, bag of chips, cigarettes, cupcakes, ice tea, lottery tickets, whatever it is ... but it's a dollar here two dollars there, you do that every day during the week, and believe me you're in a whole different world of money spending. What I do is, keep enough cash in my wallet to get me through to the next paycheck; the only money you need in your wallet is to put gas in your vehicle and to buy groceries. You should also save an extra $20 just in case you forget your lunch or something comes up.

Now if you are living in a joint relationship (i.e. husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend) at that point in time, you are going to want to split the money that it takes to be able to put gas in your vehicles. You're going to need the money to get you through the week or, if you get paid bi-weekly, then the money needs to last you twice as long. You will need to break this down to be precise, but give yourself enough movement when the gas prices go up. Today gas is $1.84 a gallon, which is down significantly, giving my family a little extra money for the week. The price of gas can change regularly, so you will have to be aware of the money you are spending when the gas prices start to rise. After budgeting for your gas, you will then want to budget the amount of money you wish to spend on groceries weekly/bi-weekly. Keep in mind, that when you are going to the grocery store, you should be able to spend a little extra to get enough to pack your lunch. Not packing your lunch can get expensive. You could easily spend $50 to $75 dollars weekly. Depending where you live in the country, the cost of food will vary. It could cost you up to $600-800 a month. In our house, one of the biggest expenses is food. Food is an essential, and when you use the cash carry method, you know exactly how much to budget for food. If you are not under the amount budgeted, you will run out of money before your next pay. Examples to keep the food budget in order would be to research the best grocery store in the area with the best prices. Take advantage of the local discount food markets and farmers markets. Shopping at stores with a reward point system can help to keep you in budget. You do not need to buy the most expensive apple, to enjoy a good tasting apple. Sometimes you are just paying for the name brand. Meat can be a huge expense at the store. You do not need to purchase a top of the line Filet Mignon. You can just get a middle priced meat, it will taste just as good.

Couponing is a great way of saving money on items when working with your budget. My wife is a coupon queen when it comes to grocery shopping. You can look through the local newspapers/ads to find the best deals in the area. When couponing, the number one rule is, just because you have the coupon, does not mean you need to buy that item, if it is not a necessity. Be sure to write a list prior to going to the store, marking which items you have a coupon for. Using a list helps you stay on track with your budget and not buying items you do not need. Another means of saving at the grocery store is to buy generic foods. Sometimes the items that you buy name brand, tastes just as good in the generic brand. I know that some items you need, you want to buy name brand, and that is ok too. We prefer to buy name brand ketchup. Think of how much money you would save if you bought generic name foods ... you would only pay $1 a box for pastas where name brands would cost you $3 or 4 dollars. Most generic foods taste no different, most are using the same ingredients. At that point, you are really only paying for the name/label. A lot of the generic foods are actually made by the same company that makes the name brand foods. If you are buying...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: AuthorHouse
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1524608548
• ISBN 13: 9781524608545
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 108
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: KreGa Onlinehandel GmbH; 4950000000000; info@krega-onlinehandel.de; ; Birkenweg 31; Brakel; 33034; Deutschland