Add up all sources of income

• Create a note pad or excel spread-sheet with all sources of your income

Account For Expenses

• In your notepad or excel sheet list all of your fixed expenses such mortgage, rent, auto loan etc.
• List Variable expenses that can include utilities, food, etc.

Calculate Your Disposable Income

• Disposable income is the money that you have available to spend after you have accounted and subtracted your fixed and variable expenses.
• Make a plan for how you will save your disposable income.

Limit Credit Card Use

• Do not use your credit card wildly and set a plan for exactly how much you will put on your line. This will ensure that you do not overspend and incur high credit card interest rates
• Keep your credit use below 30% of your total available credit

Use Cash When Possible

• A good tactic to reduce the amount of money you spend is to take out the cash that you need for the day or shopping and leave your cards at home. This strategy can make it difficult to spend more money by making it inconvenient to access more money to spend outside of your budget for the day.

Budget for unexpected costs

• Have money saved up for unexpected costs or a rainy day.

Save For The Future

• Think about your future financial goals and calculate how much you would need to get to your goal amount. Create a savings plan to reach your goal.

Review Your Budget Periodically

• Check your budget weekly or monthly and make sure that you are staying within budget or that you have made realistic adjustments to your spending.

Create a Financial Calendar

• Map out how and when you have to pay bills, when you will save your money and your goal for each month. This will ensure a schedule that will get you in the habit of spending and saving wisely.
• Allocate 20% of your income towards financial priorities – emergency savings, paying off debt etc.
• Budget About 30% your income towards lifestyle – movies, restaurants etc.

Check Your Interest Rate

• Interest rates are very important and if a loan has a high interest rate that will guide you in determining which loans you would want to pay off first.