http://blog.lendingclub.com/2008/01/15/whats-your-budget-personality/ The Official Lending Club blog Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:31:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://blog.lendingclub.com/2008/01/15/whats-your-budget-personality/#comment-526 Roger Steciak Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:14:02 +0000 http://blog.lendingclub.com/2008/01/15/what%e2%80%99s-your-budget-personality/#comment-526 My budgeting technique focuses on the monthly formula of: BEGIN + PUT - TAKE = END. BEGIN is the beginning balance of my checking account, PUT is my income, TAKE is my expenses, and END is my ending balance. Whenever I pay a bill (which is almost always electronically now), I swipe the amount with my mouse cursor from the Web browser and copy and paste it into my spreadsheet (overwriting the amount I had predicted I would spend). I don't worry that much about getting the spending categories exact. A long time ago, I kept detailed "planned versus actual" records and found out that even if many line items in my expense budget were off by 30% to 50%, the end-of-month total (i.e., TAKE) was quite close to what I had predicted it would be because most of the variances cancelled each other out. I don't even record my cash expenses. Rather, I bank at the grocery store by getting back $20 to $40 each week with my debit card and call this expense item "food + cash." So what if my expense categories are off a little? The point is that I can track my overall money without having to remember to do a lot of paperwork all the time. My system works because I don't buy something unless I really need it. I also focus on the big picture of where my money is going and not on the small details. My spreadsheet lets me project my net worth well into the future, so the motivation to keep my spending in check comes from seeing that saving and investing an extra $100 a month now will translate into many thousands of dollars of net worth many years from now. My budgeting technique focuses on the monthly formula of: BEGIN +
PUT - TAKE = END. BEGIN is the beginning balance of my checking
account, PUT is my income, TAKE is my expenses, and END is my
ending balance. Whenever I pay a bill (which is almost always
electronically now), I swipe the amount with my mouse cursor from
the Web browser and copy and paste it into my spreadsheet
(overwriting the amount I had predicted I would spend). I don't
worry that much about getting the spending categories exact. A long
time ago, I kept detailed "planned versus actual" records and found
out that even if many line items in my expense budget were off by
30% to 50%, the end-of-month total (i.e., TAKE) was quite close to
what I had predicted it would be because most of the variances
cancelled each other out. I don't even record my cash expenses.
Rather, I bank at the grocery store by getting back $20 to $40 each
week with my debit card and call this expense item "food + cash."
So what if my expense categories are off a little? The point is
that I can track my overall money without having to remember to do
a lot of paperwork all the time. My system works because I don't
buy something unless I really need it. I also focus on the big
picture of where my money is going and not on the small details. My
spreadsheet lets me project my net worth well into the future, so
the motivation to keep my spending in check comes from seeing that
saving and investing an extra $100 a month now will translate into
many thousands of dollars of net worth many years from now.

]]> http://blog.lendingclub.com/2008/01/15/whats-your-budget-personality/#comment-525 Dana Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:50:48 +0000 http://blog.lendingclub.com/2008/01/15/what%e2%80%99s-your-budget-personality/#comment-525 This is a "money" year... I can feel it! This is a "money" year... I can feel it!

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