"I can't imagine a world where I don't have A Real Budget to manage my family's finances." - Ben Pitts, Chief Revenue Officer at PlanIQ
A Real Budget provides a very new and different way to view and manage household finances. Whatever you may have learned about traditional monthly or payday budgeting does not apply.
The program uses descriptive information about your household finances to construct your budget for the next twelve months as illustrated at right. Your ongoing part of the budgeting process is to keep up with the inevitable day-to-day changes in your finances as they occur.
A container, like a file folder, in which you keep your budget along with all of the tools you need to manage your household finances
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Not a new term, but, in A Real Budget is defined very differently from what you may have learned before
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Describe when and how much you get paid from any type of income: predictable and unpredictable
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Describe when and how much your bills are due for any type of bill: scheduled and unscheduled
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Describe when and how events happen with your credit cards
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A weekly allowance is key to successful budgeting: choose a weekday and an amount for your spending money
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Choose a date when you will pay bills for the first time using A Real Budget
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Initialize your spending money, checking account balance and credit card activity before paying bills the first time with the automatic payments checklist
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Make changes to predictable incomes, revise hourly work schedules including overtime, edit expected amounts for unpredictable incomes; play "what if?" with possible income changes
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Get your allowance on the weekday and in the amount of your choice; you do not plan how you will spend your allowance nor do you track how you spend it; play "what if?" with possible allowance changes
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Adjust next payment amounts for bills with varying monthly payments; play "what if?" with possible changes to bills
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Manage your charging activity with a 4-step method which includes reconciling statements monthly
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Record deposits and balance the monthly statement; your transaction register is maintained for you
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Review your budget's twice monthly net cash flow (income minus expenses and set asides) for the next 12 months to see if you plan on spending more money that you expect to have on hand
Pay bills and set aside savings twice a month on the scheduled Budget column dates
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Set aside money for short- and long-term savings such as emergency fund, periodic and ongoing savings, retirement
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Create a payoff plan with a payment amount or number of payments that fits in your budget
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Build a debt snowball to pay off multiple debts as quickly as your budget can handle
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Create an automatic amortization plan that fits in your budget for a credit card with a large balance
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A Real Budget has changed our lives for the better. We can now see exactly where our money is going at a glance and set funds aside every month without a complete lifestyle change.
We never had a manageable way to keep a handle on our finances and the impact of our choices. The picture that A Real Budget creates helps us to make well informed and objective decisions. Love it!
I really love the ability to forecast out to plan. Compared to what I was used to in terms of dwelling in the past of what was spent, I like the
future focus and
preplanning aspect of A Real Budget!
The anxiety, lack of sleep or failed relationship that you blame on money won't go away or get better until you get off your butt and take charge of your household finances.
A Real Budget makes managing your money easy. Get started today on your own financial peace of mind.