Many people continue to live paycheck-to-paycheck because it is what they saw and experienced growing up.
In a lot of cases, young workers were not taught to budget; rather, an emphasis was placed on only taking care of immediate financial responsibilities.
Creating a budget negates the need to live paycheck-to-paycheck, as it tells you exactly what you should be doing with your money daily, weekly and monthly.
The frequency in which you are paid should not affect how you manage your income, especially if your income remains static.
For example, If your salary is $40,000 a year, no matter if you are paid weekly, bi-weekly, bi-monthly or monthly, the $40,000 has not changed. So if your company changes their payroll cycle, you will not be adversely affected if you budget properly.
When you create an annual budget, which should basically be a summary, you will know how much you need to sustain your household. This information is also extremely beneficial in the event of a financial emergency, such as the loss of a job.
You will know exactly how much it costs to sustain your household, and not just what you think it costs. This is especially true for those who are W-9 income earners.
From there, you should use those same numbers to create a detailed monthly budget that is specific enough to account for all expenses: from daycare to car maintenance.
Once you have the annual and monthly budgets completed, you should create a weekly budget from your monthly budget, so you are not spending money that is allocated for other obligations.
If you misstep here, you will pay for it later. This is usually the point where many people run out of money and lament, “I have more month than money!”
One handy tip involves creating a weekly list of the things you need to purchase, and then creating “cash envelopes” that contain the amount of cash required to make those purchases.
Now that those areas are done, your daily tracking should be a cinch. You can use your weekly worksheet to pull numbers and expenses to take care of daily incidentals.
If you know that your weekly budget for food is $50, utilize sales, discounts, and coupons to ensure that the money spent at the grocery store will indeed last for the week. Avoid take out and fast food when possible; multiple trips to McDonald’s can quickly double the amount of money budgeted for food.
Creating a budget allows you to better manage your hard-earned dollars. It also helps those who are W-9 income earners to know exactly how much they truly earn. You would not believe how often I have heard that the actual earnings are not known because there is not a consistent paycheck.
Whether your money flows in weekly or monthly, you should be able to know your true income, your true expenses and how you plan to make the two work.
