now I understand what it means to have a detailed budget.
I have been recording my total daily expense everyday for the last 7-8 years, but I had not seen it as clearly as today before (since I had not categorized expenses). I appreciate the salary I have and having a modest life-style, but I gotta still make some changes to my expenses. Otherwise, having a positive chequeing account seems a distant reality. I can do better than that.
So, according to my calculations here are where my money is going:
Retirement contributions/investments (excluding the company retirement plan): ~9% of my gross income before the taxes
Fixed expenses (mortgage, insurance, cable/phone/internet, transportation (bus only), etc.): ~26% of my gross income before the taxes
Weekly allowance (including grocery and other minor shopping, breakfast, and books): ~9% of my gross income before the taxes
Family visits: 4% of my gross income before the taxes
Extras (hosting, dinners, gifts, clothes, etc. new estimation): 3% of my gross income before the taxes
House maintenance and repairs (estimated): 8% of my gross income before the taxes
Income taxes and company pension plan contributions: ~36% of my gross income before the taxes
Remaining funds: ~5% of my gross income before the taxes
The Remaining funds category is the one that will lift my chequeing account up to a positive balance; I wonder how this is going to happen?
Do not get me wrong; I am appreciative of this amount. Yet, inside I wish for more savings, more remaining funds.
The only category I can cut from is the Extras and my Weekly Allowance; if I can be smart about these expenses, my Remaining funds can be higher. I am kind of anxious. That is a challenge for sure.
I opened an Excel sheet to record the expenses in each category starting today; let’s see how it goes.
By the way, I kind of see great things as well; for example the retirement contributions and funds allocated for family visits. They are worth every penny 🙂
have you checked out daveramsey.com. Dave has built his fortune on helping people with their finances. His website has free tools to help you. You don’t have to buy anything from him. (you can though)
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I had heard about him before – i sure will check his website. Thank you 🙂
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I have been tracking my expenses with Microsoft Money since 2004. It’s an old software but has everything I need. Tracks your income and category spending and displays a report by monthly, annually or custom dates. It also shows charts.
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I downloaded it and am exploring it. let’s see whether I can get around it. thanks 🙂
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