- January 12, 2021
Budget Resources for 2021
Financial advisers often hammer into their clients the need to create budgets. Good advisers are hard-wired to offer this advice. It’s how they roll. For the rest of us, though, creating a budget is a daunting task. There are some budget resources for 2021 to help you get set up and reduce your anxiety.
A Budget Is a Staple Item for Sound Financial Plans
We’ve all been told that budgets are the key to managing your financing. However, sitting down to create one is essential to getting your finances in order. It also requires resetting your thinking about finances, for all the members of your family.
Using Online Resources
There are several online resources and apps that can help you manage your budgets (some of them included in this guide). However, not everyone feels safe entering information about finances online. Between hackers and the prying eyes of governments, there are valid concerns for wanting to keep sensitive data offline.
One option is to buy a notebook at the local stationary store and use it for your budget exclusively. Most technophiles would shun this practice, but there is something to be said for old-fashioned methods of living. It worked for many years before computers existed. It still can work for some people.
Here are the top resources to help with your budgeting for 2021:
Economic Policy Institute Budget Calculator
Want to know the average costs of your county? Enter your county into the Economic Policy Institute’s Budget Calculator and you will get an estimate. Obviously, each family’s situation will be different. But it provides a decent benchmark.
Family Budget Expert’s Budget Categories
People get tripped up with coming up with the appropriate categories when budgeting. This handy article, from the Family Budget Expert offers some help.
You’ll want to use the categories that make sense. Having a list of categories can often help spur new ideas, too.
Simple.com Guide to Creating a Family Budget
No resource list on budgeting would be comlete without some tips on how to create one. The Guide to Creating a Family Budget from Simple.com fits the bill for this task. It shows the process in a step-by-step manner that is, well, simple!
Money Under 30 – Article About Paying Off Debt
If you had $80,000 in debt and set a goal to pay it off in three year, do you think you could accomplish this? According to an article in Money Under 30, that is exactly what one person was able to accomplish.
You don’t have to be as aggressive as the author of that article, and hopefully you don’t have $80,000 in debt. But if you have any accumulated debt that you want to pay down, it’s good to know how to do it.
Paying down your debt is a sound financial principle. Don’t leave this to chance as you’ll need this to be part of your budget.
Also, it’s usually best to pay down your debts before you start investing. Since credit cards have interest rates often in excess of 20%, it will be difficult to beat that rate via any investments. You may get lucky on occasion, but history is not on your side.
Can you pay debt off if you don’t make a lot of money? From an article from the same website, you can learn how it is possible. In this article, you’ll learn about a technique known as zero-sum budgeting. It could well be the answer to your getting out of debt.
Setting Aside Money for Emergencies
Many financial planners will suggest setting aside money for emergencies. This is a wise financial decision to make. But it’s not always easy to accomplish. Something always seems to come up that requires spending that money prematurely.
An article from USA Today may help. It shows how to not only create an emergency fund but also to help get out of debt. That is often the roadblock that can prevent people from setting aside some cash for a rainy day.
The tips presented in the article are not difficult to accomplish, either. That means you’ll have a better chance of making them work for you and your family.
Another Resource to Help Get That Personal Budget Created
Different resources will offer differing ideas about any topic. This is true with budgets, too. While there will be some overlap, the more resources you draw your ideas from, the easier it is to find a plan that will work for your needs.
That makes sense because no advice on budget can cover every situation for every household. Multiple resources means getting more ideas, it’s that simple.
Even when you finish with this article, consider searching for others to help when your formulating your budgeting plan.
To add to your resources, Income Buddies has a decent article about how to create a budget. Feel free to skip over the sections that aren’t relevant to you. Hopefully, there won’t be too many of these.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you have enough resources from this article to help you get going on your budget. The sooner you get started, the quicker you’ll get your finances back on track.
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