Jasmine Birtles
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5 Helpful Basic Budgeting Tips for Young Adults
Reading Time: 4 minutesIf you’re a young adult who wants financial freedom in no time, you should learn how to budget your hard-earned money properly. Doing so will help you maximize your salary and save more for the future.
Check out the essential budgeting tips we’ve compiled to help you jumpstart your responsible adulting journey.
- Establish a Realistic Budget
- Live Within Your Means
- Focus on Why You Want to Budget Money
- Track Your Spending
- Plan Your Budgeting Strategy
- In Conclusion
Establish a Realistic Budget
One common myth about budgeting is that you should avoid leisure and spend as little money as possible on eating. However, if you don’t spend cash on fun or amusement, tension and irritation may build up and cause you to indulge in a shopping binge.
It’s crucial to be practical when creating a budget. Being reasonable entails setting aside enough cash for your basic needs, including food and groceries, and a sizable sum for other things, like leisure.
Another strategy is to select how much money you’d like to put away each month; 10% of your income is a good place to start. Once you’ve done that, creating a monthly budget is manageable.
Live Within Your Means
You don’t need to spend all your income when spending money. You can live within your means, but it doesn’t mean that you need to exhaust all your income. Avoid spending on things you can’t afford just to impress other people.
Prioritize the necessities such as utilities, food, groceries, transportation, and savings. You’re still young and just starting, so you still have your chance to experience the best in life. But for now, you must be clever in spending your income.
You can also consider taking a personal loan to fund some necessary personal expenses you can’t afford. However, you must be careful and ensure you are taking a loan responsibly. If you decide to acquire a loan, you can check on online lenders like CreditNinja for the ideal loan offer suitable for your needs and capability to pay.
You can surely find a good loan option on their website. Just take your time and browse through their loan products for the best result.
Focus on Why You Want to Budget Money
Avoid focusing on how to budget money and focus on why you want to budget money instead. Even though it may seem straightforward, the initial step in making a budget is figuring out why you want to start budgeting in the first place.
There are many reasons people want to budget their money. It can be because they want to buy something, such as a vehicle or property. Many live on a budget to save for emergencies or prepare for a more comfortable retirement.
Whatever your reason is, you should keep your eyes on the prize, as it can help make budgeting more tolerable because of the sacrifices it requires. Learning how to budget is vital, especially if you still need to learn how to do it. However, it becomes successful if you concentrate on your goal.
Track Your Spending
The ability to be informed about your income is among the biggest reasons to monitor your spending. You’re highly likely to stick to your budget, which can even help you have extra monthly money if you frequently monitor your spending.
The most crucial thing to keep in mind about monitoring your spending is that it might help you find ways to save costs and prevent difficult financial situations, especially with the prices of basic commodities rising.
Keeping track of what you spend in the present encourages you to consider each item thoroughly and makes it easier to know how frequently you spend.
Another easy way to track your spending is to automate the system. In earlier times, a pen and paper would suffice. Fortunately, today, everything can be automated.
You must choose the best expense tracker apps and install them on your smartphone. These apps will help you streamline your expenses for better monitoring.
Plan Your Budgeting Strategy
You have determined your savings goals and why you desire to create a budget. Now is the moment to determine how much money you can save each month. Naturally, this differs from one individual to the other.
You might work full-time as an employee with a consistent salary or as a freelancer with fluctuating revenue. Or perhaps you’re working hard to stretch every dollar to make ends meet on a meagre salary. Whatever the situation, we’ve put together some wise budgeting advice that applies to all income levels.
The 50-20-30 Budgeting Rule
The 50-20-30 formula suggests the following for your budget:
- 50% of your revenue is spent on “needs,” which are your fixed expenses like rent and bills, or automotive services like a cheap oil change at Walmart.
- 30% of your income will be spent on your “want,” such as eating out, going to the salon, and shopping for clothes.
- 20% is allocated to savings or debt repayment.
Zero-Based Budget Method
Compared to the 50/30/20 strategy, the zero-based budgeting system focuses on giving each penny a defined task. There should be no cash in your accounts at the end of each month after subtracting all of your revenue from your expenses.
It entails adjusting your budget to accurately track your fixed, variable, and savings expenses every month, down to the last cent. This budgeting method requires you to pay close attention to every single monthly transaction as it occurs because it is so detail-oriented.
In Conclusion
Staying on a budget can be challenging but possible. What you need is to have a guide to help you jumpstart your budgeting journey. Therefore, use this article as your guide in making a responsible financial decision that will impact your future.
Disclaimer: MoneyMagpie is not a licensed financial advisor and therefore information found here including opinions, commentary, suggestions or strategies are for informational, entertainment or educational purposes only. This should not be considered as financial advice. Anyone thinking of investing should conduct their own due diligence.
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