Budget
Jan 25 2008 05:32 PM Filed in: Personal
Since I left Kimberly I have been working to get
myself out of debt. When her and I split I had over
20k in debt. Now I am down to a couple thousand on
one credit card, which I will be paying off over the
next couple months. Once all of that is done I plan
on getting my finances in order and concentrating on
saving, investing and retirement. I figure the best
way to go about this is to come up with a budget. I
subscribe to a couple financial blogs, and recently
saw a link to an article about a budget called the
60% Budget. I looked it over and thought this might
be a good way to start going about coming up with a
budget for myself. The 60% Budget breaks down like
this
60% of your gross income should be dedicated to "Committed Expenses". These are
- Basic food and clothing needs
- Essential household expenses
- Insurance premiums
- Charitable contributions
- All bills
- All taxes
10% for "Retirement" expenses
- 401(k)
- IRA or Roth IRA
10% for "Longterm Savings"
- Investments, like stock, bonds, etc.
10% for "Short Term Savings or Irregular Expenses"
- Savings account
- Vacations
- Repairs
- New Applicances
10% for "Fun Money"
- Spend on anything you like.
I use a software program called iBank to track my Checking, Savings, Credit Cards, Investments, and it has a budget feature, so I am going to use this to start tracking all my expenditures to see if I can stick to this budget. It will be nice to have everything working well, so that my savings, investments and retirement funds have a consistent inflow. I may open a couple ING savings accounts, that way I can have one set up for Vacations, one for Emergencies and one for my regular savings, but I haven't decided.
60% of your gross income should be dedicated to "Committed Expenses". These are
- Basic food and clothing needs
- Essential household expenses
- Insurance premiums
- Charitable contributions
- All bills
- All taxes
10% for "Retirement" expenses
- 401(k)
- IRA or Roth IRA
10% for "Longterm Savings"
- Investments, like stock, bonds, etc.
10% for "Short Term Savings or Irregular Expenses"
- Savings account
- Vacations
- Repairs
- New Applicances
10% for "Fun Money"
- Spend on anything you like.
I use a software program called iBank to track my Checking, Savings, Credit Cards, Investments, and it has a budget feature, so I am going to use this to start tracking all my expenditures to see if I can stick to this budget. It will be nice to have everything working well, so that my savings, investments and retirement funds have a consistent inflow. I may open a couple ING savings accounts, that way I can have one set up for Vacations, one for Emergencies and one for my regular savings, but I haven't decided.
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