For me, the thing that keeps my budget in working order is that I have a long term goal of saving enough for college and then retirement, so I throw 75% of my income into savings/ investing while staying under X dollars every month (I live my parents for the time being. One of the few times in life you can afford to bank most of your income). So in short, the way I succeed is having a long term goal in place to keep me focused.
As for how, I use Excel as a general ledger to track each time I make a purchase, pay my credit cards, any time I get paid, and at the end of the month, my investment gains/losses. I highlight negative things like purchases or losses in red, and more positive things like income and paying off credit in green. If I were to transfer money between accounts ( as in taking money from say "Checking" and put it into my mutual fund or open a new asset account), I use yellow. This helps me see if I spend excessively and then I can look and see what it was I bought.
How do you form a budget and stick to it? What keeps you focused?
Submitted January 14, 2018 at 08:08AM by Panda_Satan http://ift.tt/2D0WTjv
