Budget templates
Get started on your budget! Please see budget templates below:
Numerous benefits come from having a financial plan and sticking to it. Here are a few of the key benefits that you get from creating a financial plan:
The process of financial planning helps you set goals
Financial planning is a great source of motivation and commitment
Financial plans provide a guide for action and decision-making
Financial planning has additional emotional and mental health benefits
Financial planning is shown to improve financial outcomes
Financial planning puts you in control to take charge of your finances and your money
How to set up a budget
Start by going through all your bills and expenses and organizing them into categories. By doing this, you will gain a deeper understanding of your assets and spending habits.
Decide what your financial goals are. Where would you like to be financially in one, three, or five years? What kind of items or vacations are you saving for?
With this newly acquired knowledge about your finances, you can look at how you handle your money and identify opportunities to act and make the changes needed to reach your financial goals and the desired results.
The secret to keeping the budget simple is to create broad expense categories without going into too much detail. You can list groceries as a category, for instance, but there is no need to have a category for each supermarket or store you shop at. A good budget could have as few as 10 to 15 items yet give you a great picture of your financial affairs.
You can write your budget on paper, set up a simple Excel spreadsheet, or use commercial budgeting software.