Debt Free Seminar Agenda: Define Budget Why do we need to budget our finances? How to create a budget? How to pay off debt? How to identify Needs and Wants? What s Next?
BUDGET WHAT IS IT?
A budget is a spending plan. An estimation of income and expenses over time. A budget is simply spending your money with purpose.
What does GOD say about having A PLAN? Proverbs: 13:16 A wise man thinks ahead: a fool doesn t, and even brags about it. Proverbs: 21-5 The plans of the diligently lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty. Luke: 14-28-30 For which one of you when he wants to build a tower, doesn t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe begin to ridicule him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.
Budget is the dreaded "B" word. The only other word that starts with "B" that might generate more dread is the word bankruptcy. Unfortunately, the word budget has gotten a bad rap. It s basically just a plan. When you budget, you re spending with purpose, before the month begins. But many people view a budget as a straightjacket that keeps them from doing what they want. Freedom and budget just don t seem to go together.
Budgeting is the process of creating a plan to spend GOD s (Your) money. Budgeting Facts: 1. 68% of Americans don t budget every month. 2. 40% of American s food budget is spent on eating out. 3. 34% of Americans spending goes toward housing.
How to make a monthly budget? 1. Write down your total income for the month. This is your total take-home (after tax) pay for both you and, if you're married, your spouse. Don't forget to include everything full-time jobs, second jobs, freelance pay, Social Security checks, and any other ongoing sources of income.
2. List all of your expenses Think about your regular bills (mortgage, electricity, etc.) and your irregular bills (quarterly payments like insurance or HOA) that are due for the upcoming month. After that, total your other costs, like food, gas, and entertainment. Every dollar you spend should be accounted for.
3. Subtract expenses from income to equal zero. This is called a zero-based budget, meaning your income minus your expenses should equal zero. If you're over or under, check your math or simply return to the previous step and try again.
4. Track your expenses throughout the month. Once you start the budget, you'll still need to stay on top of your expenses. You can utilize a budgeting tool like Every Dollar or monitor your spending via on-line banking.
Ten pointers for your first budget 1. Budget to zero before the month begins. That means every dollar gets a name before you spend a dime of it. 2. If you re married, you and your spouse need to do the budget together. Period. The preacher said "... and you are one." If you re single, find someone who can act as your accountability partner.
3. Every month is different (think birthdays, vacations, car insurance, back-to-school supplies), so be sure to adjust your budget monthly. 4. As you re budgeting, start with your most important categories first, like giving, housing, food, clothing, insurance and bills. Then, fill in the rest of your budget with your leftover cash. 5. If you re in debt, paying that off should be a top priority. Use the debt snowball in order to focus your money where it has the most impact.
6. Don t be afraid to make budget cuts. If your budget is tight, save money by canceling cable, eat out less, change your cellplan, shop at a discount grocery store, and brown bag lunch for work. You can always rearrange things next month. 7. Use the cash envelope system for as many budget categories as it makes sense. For example, keep paying for gasoline with your debit card, but get cash out for your fun money and clothing cash. Once your envelope is empty, stop spending! It s the ultimate accountability partner.
8. Give yourself lots of grace. It usually takes three to four months to get this whole budgeting thing down pat. It won t be perfect the first time, or the second. But you ll get there! 9. Be content. You have much more than you realize. Don t compare your situation to anyone else s. Keep moving forward and doing what s right for your family.
10. When you are spending your money with purpose, you ll be on the road to changing your family tree forever! Imagine your future (and your kids future) without money worries. That s the beauty of a hardworking budget.
How to handle excess debt? Debt Snowball: The debt snowball method is a debt reduction strategy where you pay off debts in order of smallest to largest, gaining momentum as each balance is paid off. When the smallest debt is paid in full, you roll the money you were paying on that debt into the next smallest balance.
Debt Snowball It looks something like this: Step 1: List your debts from smallest to largest. Step 2: Make minimum payments on all your debts except the smallest. Step 3: Pay as much as possible on your smallest debt. Step 4: Repeat until each debt is paid in full.
An Example of the Debt Snowball Say you have the following four debts: 1. $500 medical bill ($50 payment) 2. $2,500 credit card debt ($63 payment) 3. $7,000 car loan ($135 payment) 4. $10,000 student loan ($96 payment)
Debt Snowball Using the debt snowball method, you would make the minimum payments on everything except the medical bill. For this example, let's say you have an extra $500 each month from taking a side job and cutting your expenses down to the bare minimum. Since you re paying $550 a month on the medical bill (the $50 payment plus the extra $500), that debt will be done in one month. You would then take that $550 and attack the credit card debt. You can pay $613 on the plastic (the freed-up $550 plus the $63 minimum payment). In about four months, wave bye-bye to the credit card. You ve paid it off!
Debt Snowball Now punch that car note in the face to the tune of $748 a month. In 10 months, it will drive off into the sunset. Now you re on fire! By the time you reach the student loan, which is your biggest debt, you can put $844 a month toward it. That means it will only last about 12 months. After that, Sallie Mae better get used to living somewhere else, because you ve kicked her out! Now in 27 months you have paid off $20,000 in debt. How do you feel?
Identify Needs and Wants I believe that many of the personal finance problems that people face are due to a confusion between wants and needs. Not long ago, I used to think it was more a matter of a blurry area between wants and needs. I d used that blurry area to justify some of my purchases vacations, expensive suits, expensive shoes and so on. These things were needed in some way, so I would just define them as needs and not think about them critically. But what happens when I step back from that for a moment and think about these things with a seriously critical eye?
What do I actually need in life? I need a roof over my head. Does that mean I need a house as nice as the one we live in? Not really we could make do with something much smaller and older. Thus, quite honestly, probably half of our mortgage payment is a need and half of it is a want. The same goes for house insurance. I need food and water. A majority of my food bill is a need most of my purchases are simply covering staples and buying the basics of food for my family. I ll also identify my water bill as a need. I need clothing. I m extremely tight with my clothing what I do buy is used to directly replace something that s falling apart, and as we ve established, I wear clothes until they re in very bad shape. Even then, when I do buy clothes, I ll still spend a little above the need. I need a means to earn a living to pay for the needs. That means at least part of our electric bill is a need, as is our internet bill, as both of these are required for me to consult with my peers and earn income.
Everything else is a Want When you start looking at the small number of things in your life that are actually needs, you really begin to see how many things you buy simply because you want them, and then you start to realize just how much fat you can really cut. For example, do I really need both a home telephone and a cell phone, especially if I m already paying for high speed internet and my computer has a microphone and speakers? Of course not. I could just set up Skype and immediately eliminate the landline, then just get a prepaid cell phone and take care of the mobile bill, too.
Try this Experiment Divide all of your spending into needs and wants. Before tallying things up, make a deal with yourself for every dollar you spend on a want, put a dollar into savings for the future. Then tally things up. When I did this, I realized that the majority of our spending was on things that were merely things I wanted. Looking at those wants with a more critical eye eliminating some and putting a bit more focus on the things most important to me led me to making some cuts in my spending that I might have otherwise just assumed as a given. That s made a big change in my spending choices and has put some cash right back in my pocket.
Debt is financial slavery You can wander into debt, but you can t wander out. We live in a world where debt is considered normal. Don t worry, people tell us. Everybody has it! We re bombarded with messages that say we can t live without loans. We re told we can t go to school or buy a house or get a car without loans. So we borrow money to replace our cars, put 0% down on a new house, and finance our kids college. Have you ever wondered why debt ruins our lives? Maybe it s because God never intended for us to live in bondage to debt. Romans 13:8 (NIV) says, Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. Proverbs 6:5 (NIV): Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of a fowler.
Now What? You have created a budget you can commit to You have paid off you debt with the debt snowball process You have Identified Needs and Wants You are now ready to start building wealth. (Handout)
Thank You!!! Questions????