I had some extra time today, so I sat down and put together a budget. Never before had I done this. I guess I didn’t see the point in it. As long as my bills were paid on time, I was happy. Entering 2008 I knew that things needed to change.
The tools I used to assemble my budget were Quicken and Excel. I’m pretty proficient with Excel, but I chose to use the monthly budget template put together by Joseph Sangl. This template is very easy to use – it even gives you the percentage you spend on certain categories.
Putting together the budget opened my eyes to a few things. One of them is that my wife and I have a bunch more money left over at the end of the month than I had previously thought. Now we know how much money we can set aside for savings each week and how much we can increase our 401k contributions. I wish I would have taken an active role in my finances earlier. Ah well, I can’t change the past but I can stick to my new plan and start saving now.
