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Casual Articles - Debt Management, Budgeting and Financial Controls - Planning The Budget
Human beings and the way they interact are extraordinarily Complex. Deming tried to define that complexity.We have since learned the impossibility of defining natural events in a digital way.When we ignore the complexity and allow people to get on with what they want to do by removing the barriers to their performance, their performance becomes extraordinary.I have been trying to discover why there is so much resistance to what is essentially some very basic philosophy.Demings early work on statistics and quality was built around an ability to analyse complex systems and the use of that analysis to predict complex outcomes.Deming was a statistician and his work very soon leaves the basic philosophy and becomes bogged in the complex use of numbers to define complex systems.The very complexity of his approach deters many students but there is a more fundamental problem with complex systems that was identified by the later work on chaos.There seems to be two approaches to the world.<
Any other thing you can do in this area to consolidate debt and reduce overall interest payments needs to be examined closely.
However, you need to resist the temptation to make any loan consolidations that involve using your property for security. There is probably another way, so explore the other ways first.
The last section is income. You may have been tough with yourself in the cost section, but the other dimension to the budget is of course income. The more you increase your income, the less you need to cut back (or the bigger the benefit if you do).
Whilst writing 'increase your income' is very easy for me to do, in reality it is much harder to do. However, there may be opportunities you had not considered which may be worth exploring such as overtime, weekend shifts, unsociable shifts, additional responsibilities that could be taken on, or even a second job. Switching jobs could also be an option as could be starting a completely new career.
In other words increasing income is not always about getting further up the greasy pole, sometimes it is about taking a sideways move into any area you had not considered before.
One last point on income: while
An interested visitor who has been strolling through your site has finally come to just what she is looking for and is about to make a purchase. It's a sunny afternoon, and her cat, who happens to be sitting on the moss under the visitor's large fifty-year-old snow-rose bonsai tree, suddenly jumps down, and the priceless tree topples over.In the blink of an eye, your visitor exits your site, and your sale is dust - unless you have had the foresight to utilize an autoresponder that has captured her email address. If you have installed an autoresponder, you can then follow-up with her, and in all probability, make the sale when the poor woman has finished repotting her precious bonsai.Autoresponders are remarkable, versatile programs that do so much more than just automatically answer your email. Here are a few ideas that will help you to creatively and productively use your autoresponder to transform the casual visitor into a profitable customer. Use your autoresponder to:1. Publish a newsletter. Certain qual
In the previous exercise, we have identified all costs and all income and now have a clear picture of the current situation. Using this information, the budget we set will, in effect, be an overview of how we live our lives from this point on. There will be certain rules that we have to stick with, but we will know that sticking to the rules will allow us to achieve our future financial goals.
The next part of the process is a little more painful and certainly more laborious than the last, but nevertheless must be done. Begin with the easy stuff first. This is the middle section on the budget sheet, i.e.:
- motoring expenses;
- food and housekeeping;
- miscellaneous goods and services;
- personal and leisure;
- sundries and emergencies.
There will be lots of low hanging fruit here (easy savings to be made).
For example, let's say your daily expenditure diary reveals that on your commute to work you buy a newspaper at the railway station and a coffee while you wait for the train. You buy lunch at the deli around the corner, but go to the local pub for a sit down lunch and a drink on a Friday. You have a drink with colleagues after work on average 2 nights a week and buy an evening paper to read on the train on the way back from work. This is what this expenditure looks like over the week:
Morning coffee: 1.50 x 5 = 7.50
Morning paper: 0.60 x 5 = 3.00
Lunch at the deli 2.50 x 4 = 10.00
Bar lunch: 7.50 x 1 = 7.50
After work drinks: 2.80 x 2 = 5.60
Evening paper: 0.50 x 5 = 2.50
Weekly total: 7.50 + 3 + 10 + 7.50 + 5.60 + 2.50 = ?36.10
Look at this again. Every single item is discretionary, yet it will cost you ?144.40 in a 4 week month.
You may not be able to give everything up on the list, but taking a flask of coffee to work with a packed lunch may be a start. Many newspapers now offer yearly subscriptions that will cut the weekly bill by more than half - if you still need to have a newspaper every morning and every evening (do you?). The pub lunch could be dropped and the drinks with the colleagues after work cut back to one drink one evening a week - still sociable enough for most people.
In this example we might get back something like ?130 per month. If there are two of you doing it, it might be more like ?260 per month.
You need to do this type of breakdown and cost reduction exercise on each line item. Drop things like takeaways to a once a month treat and (if you do not already) learn to cook and cut out ready meals and other prepared food. You will not only save money, you will find you start living healthier too.
Examine closely how you do your motoring. Could you mange with one car instead of two? Could you get rid of the gas guzzling 4 x 4, which would reduce insurance, maintenance, road tax and fuel bills - all at once? Hopefully you are getting the idea by now.
Once the individual figures have been reviewed and cost reductions identified, you can put the new figures into the budget sheet and we can now start to see the new budget taking shape.
Next we can look at the first section. That is:
-housing costs;
-rates and utilities;
-important household services;
-personal insurances.
These are largely fixed costs, but there are opportunities here too. Housing costs such as rent or mortgages can be reduced. Mortgage deals can be switched to take advantage of new lender deals, or fixed rate schemes taken on if interest rates look like rising in the near future. The term of the loan can be extended or (if things are really tight) payments dropped to interest only for a while. You need to ask the question.
If you are renting, could you manage with a smaller property, or a one in a less fashionable area? Could you move closer to work at the same time and reduce daily travelling costs?
Take a look at what seems to be fixed costs such as personal, or household, insurances and compare rates and benefits. Deals in this area change literally every week.
Gas and electric costs can be reduced by switching supplier or, better still, turning down the heating and switching off lights and appliances when they are not being used. Focus on this for a while and you might be pleasantly surprised at the difference it will make.
And so on.
The last cost section is the credit card and unsecured debt one. Much like insurances this may be a more flexible area than you think. If your credit rating is good then you have lots of room here to take on new cards and deals with 0% interest rates. Make sure when you do this that you close down the accounts you are transferring from. That is, you do not increase your overall indebtedness, or availability of debt.
If your credit rating is already poor, or bad, this may not be an option for you, so you will have to find other ways to reduce your repayments. One thing that creditors like to see is that their debtors are in control of the situation. A well put together budget sheet like the one we are in the process of outlining here can be a huge help.
Using the budget sheet you can identify all income and expenditure that needs to be made before handling your unsecured debt. This will leave you a set amount that can be used to negotiate reduced payments to your creditors.
This is a separate subject in its own right, but showing you are in control of your own finances may allow you to negotiate a reduced payment plan with the companies concerned.
Any other thing you can do in this area to consolidate debt and reduce overall interest payments needs to be examined closely.
However, you need to resist the temptation to make any loan consolidations that involve using your property for security. There is probably another way, so explore the other ways first.
The last section is income. You may have been tough with yourself in the cost section, but the other dimension to the budget is of course income. The more you increase your income, the less you need to cut back (or the bigger the benefit if you do).
Whilst writing 'increase your income' is very easy for me to do, in reality it is much harder to do. However, there may be opportunities you had not considered which may be worth exploring such as overtime, weekend shifts, unsociable shifts, additional responsibilities that could be taken on, or even a second job. Switching jobs could also be an option as could be starting a completely new career.
In other words increasing income is not always about getting further up the greasy pole, sometimes it is about taking a sideways move into any area you had not considered before.
One last point on income: while
In their attempt to recover the debts the some unprofessional collection agencies or collection attorneys may resort to certain unlawful and unwarranted procedures or intimidation tactics. The Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) has been structured to protect debtors in such circumstances.These collection agents come across as very forceful people always armed with the necessary answer on the tip of their tongues. They may act aggressively as they are paid according to the amount they collect and have to meet the set targets. However the act forbids them from calling you more than thrice on a day. If they continue calling you it can be legally termed as harassment. You can also request them not to contact you on certain days or during your office hours.You can completely stop them from calling by writing a "Cease and Desist" letter and mail it by return receipt mail so that they cannot deny having received it. It is illegal on their part to refuse or avoid the letter but the onus of legally enforcing
Morning coffee: 1.50 x 5 = 7.50
Morning paper: 0.60 x 5 = 3.00
Lunch at the deli 2.50 x 4 = 10.00
Bar lunch: 7.50 x 1 = 7.50
After work drinks: 2.80 x 2 = 5.60
Evening paper: 0.50 x 5 = 2.50
Weekly total: 7.50 + 3 + 10 + 7.50 + 5.60 + 2.50 = ?36.10
Look at this again. Every single item is discretionary, yet it will cost you ?144.40 in a 4 week month.
You may not be able to give everything up on the list, but taking a flask of coffee to work with a packed lunch may be a start. Many newspapers now offer yearly subscriptions that will cut the weekly bill by more than half - if you still need to have a newspaper every morning and every evening (do you?). The pub lunch could be dropped and the drinks with the colleagues after work cut back to one drink one evening a week - still sociable enough for most people.
In this example we might get back something like ?130 per month. If there are two of you doing it, it might be more like ?260 per month.
You need to do this type of breakdown and cost reduction exercise on each line item. Drop things like takeaways to a once a month treat and (if you do not already) learn to cook and cut out ready meals and other prepared food. You will not only save money, you will find you start living healthier too.
Examine closely how you do your motoring. Could you mange with one car instead of two? Could you get rid of the gas guzzling 4 x 4, which would reduce insurance, maintenance, road tax and fuel bills - all at once? Hopefully you are getting the idea by now.
Once the individual figures have been reviewed and cost reductions identified, you can put the new figures into the budget sheet and we can now start to see the new budget taking shape.
Next we can look at the first section. That is:
-housing costs;
-rates and utilities;
-important household services;
-personal insurances.
These are largely fixed costs, but there are opportunities here too. Housing costs such as rent or mortgages can be reduced. Mortgage deals can be switched to take advantage of new lender deals, or fixed rate schemes taken on if interest rates look like rising in the near future. The term of the loan can be extended or (if things are really tight) payments dropped to interest only for a while. You need to ask the question.
If you are renting, could you manage with a smaller property, or a one in a less fashionable area? Could you move closer to work at the same time and reduce daily travelling costs?
Take a look at what seems to be fixed costs such as personal, or household, insurances and compare rates and benefits. Deals in this area change literally every week.
Gas and electric costs can be reduced by switching supplier or, better still, turning down the heating and switching off lights and appliances when they are not being used. Focus on this for a while and you might be pleasantly surprised at the difference it will make.
And so on.
The last cost section is the credit card and unsecured debt one. Much like insurances this may be a more flexible area than you think. If your credit rating is good then you have lots of room here to take on new cards and deals with 0% interest rates. Make sure when you do this that you close down the accounts you are transferring from. That is, you do not increase your overall indebtedness, or availability of debt.
If your credit rating is already poor, or bad, this may not be an option for you, so you will have to find other ways to reduce your repayments. One thing that creditors like to see is that their debtors are in control of the situation. A well put together budget sheet like the one we are in the process of outlining here can be a huge help.
Using the budget sheet you can identify all income and expenditure that needs to be made before handling your unsecured debt. This will leave you a set amount that can be used to negotiate reduced payments to your creditors.
This is a separate subject in its own right, but showing you are in control of your own finances may allow you to negotiate a reduced payment plan with the companies concerned.
Any other thing you can do in this area to consolidate debt and reduce overall interest payments needs to be examined closely.
However, you need to resist the temptation to make any loan consolidations that involve using your property for security. There is probably another way, so explore the other ways first.
The last section is income. You may have been tough with yourself in the cost section, but the other dimension to the budget is of course income. The more you increase your income, the less you need to cut back (or the bigger the benefit if you do).
Whilst writing 'increase your income' is very easy for me to do, in reality it is much harder to do. However, there may be opportunities you had not considered which may be worth exploring such as overtime, weekend shifts, unsociable shifts, additional responsibilities that could be taken on, or even a second job. Switching jobs could also be an option as could be starting a completely new career.
In other words increasing income is not always about getting further up the greasy pole, sometimes it is about taking a sideways move into any area you had not considered before.
One last point on income: while
HEADSETS & TELEPHONESThe equipment your personnel use is important. Don’t let others tell you any different. Like the Sales Representative who looks forward to his or her new car every two years, so the telesales person deserves to enjoy good equipment. Good, practical equipment does make a difference. The Sales representative drives the car every day; it’s a tool of the profession. The staff work area, tools and equipment, like the Sales Rep’s car, say something about them and the way in which they do their job.Comfort and professionalismAs the major tool of this trade is the telephone, it is important to give serious thought to comfort, ease of use, practicality and of course, cost. Let us look at some available options to help you become more comfortable, more professional, and more under control.HeadsetsHeadsets (A telephone mouthpiece and earpiece which clip over the head) are available in a range of styles and prices. The price depends upon the degree of sophistication and the qual
Examine closely how you do your motoring. Could you mange with one car instead of two? Could you get rid of the gas guzzling 4 x 4, which would reduce insurance, maintenance, road tax and fuel bills - all at once? Hopefully you are getting the idea by now.
Once the individual figures have been reviewed and cost reductions identified, you can put the new figures into the budget sheet and we can now start to see the new budget taking shape.
Next we can look at the first section. That is:
-housing costs;
-rates and utilities;
-important household services;
-personal insurances.
These are largely fixed costs, but there are opportunities here too. Housing costs such as rent or mortgages can be reduced. Mortgage deals can be switched to take advantage of new lender deals, or fixed rate schemes taken on if interest rates look like rising in the near future. The term of the loan can be extended or (if things are really tight) payments dropped to interest only for a while. You need to ask the question.
If you are renting, could you manage with a smaller property, or a one in a less fashionable area? Could you move closer to work at the same time and reduce daily travelling costs?
Take a look at what seems to be fixed costs such as personal, or household, insurances and compare rates and benefits. Deals in this area change literally every week.
Gas and electric costs can be reduced by switching supplier or, better still, turning down the heating and switching off lights and appliances when they are not being used. Focus on this for a while and you might be pleasantly surprised at the difference it will make.
And so on.
The last cost section is the credit card and unsecured debt one. Much like insurances this may be a more flexible area than you think. If your credit rating is good then you have lots of room here to take on new cards and deals with 0% interest rates. Make sure when you do this that you close down the accounts you are transferring from. That is, you do not increase your overall indebtedness, or availability of debt.
If your credit rating is already poor, or bad, this may not be an option for you, so you will have to find other ways to reduce your repayments. One thing that creditors like to see is that their debtors are in control of the situation. A well put together budget sheet like the one we are in the process of outlining here can be a huge help.
Using the budget sheet you can identify all income and expenditure that needs to be made before handling your unsecured debt. This will leave you a set amount that can be used to negotiate reduced payments to your creditors.
This is a separate subject in its own right, but showing you are in control of your own finances may allow you to negotiate a reduced payment plan with the companies concerned.
Any other thing you can do in this area to consolidate debt and reduce overall interest payments needs to be examined closely.
However, you need to resist the temptation to make any loan consolidations that involve using your property for security. There is probably another way, so explore the other ways first.
The last section is income. You may have been tough with yourself in the cost section, but the other dimension to the budget is of course income. The more you increase your income, the less you need to cut back (or the bigger the benefit if you do).
Whilst writing 'increase your income' is very easy for me to do, in reality it is much harder to do. However, there may be opportunities you had not considered which may be worth exploring such as overtime, weekend shifts, unsociable shifts, additional responsibilities that could be taken on, or even a second job. Switching jobs could also be an option as could be starting a completely new career.
In other words increasing income is not always about getting further up the greasy pole, sometimes it is about taking a sideways move into any area you had not considered before.
One last point on income: while
You need web site exposure and web site traffic fast. You've tried the safelists, the traffic exchanges, the press releases, the email marketing and even forum/blog posts. Should you try classifieds at Craigslist next or is there a more consistent way to get traffic to your website and generate signups and sales that will be ongoing and from a source that you can count on for a long time to come?Well, thankfully for you, as you have probably already surmised from the title of this article, there are riches to be won from article marketing if you know what you are doing and do it consistently. First, did you know that ezinearticles is the top rated article directory on the net? Next is goarticles. There are many more but those are the top ones. Did you know that you can freely distribute your articles by using sendarticles.com? They provide free distribution to many article directories to have you relevant one way links pointing to your website in thousands of places within just a couple of days.The reason that arti
Gas and electric costs can be reduced by switching supplier or, better still, turning down the heating and switching off lights and appliances when they are not being used. Focus on this for a while and you might be pleasantly surprised at the difference it will make.
And so on.
The last cost section is the credit card and unsecured debt one. Much like insurances this may be a more flexible area than you think. If your credit rating is good then you have lots of room here to take on new cards and deals with 0% interest rates. Make sure when you do this that you close down the accounts you are transferring from. That is, you do not increase your overall indebtedness, or availability of debt.
If your credit rating is already poor, or bad, this may not be an option for you, so you will have to find other ways to reduce your repayments. One thing that creditors like to see is that their debtors are in control of the situation. A well put together budget sheet like the one we are in the process of outlining here can be a huge help.
Using the budget sheet you can identify all income and expenditure that needs to be made before handling your unsecured debt. This will leave you a set amount that can be used to negotiate reduced payments to your creditors.
This is a separate subject in its own right, but showing you are in control of your own finances may allow you to negotiate a reduced payment plan with the companies concerned.
Any other thing you can do in this area to consolidate debt and reduce overall interest payments needs to be examined closely.
However, you need to resist the temptation to make any loan consolidations that involve using your property for security. There is probably another way, so explore the other ways first.
The last section is income. You may have been tough with yourself in the cost section, but the other dimension to the budget is of course income. The more you increase your income, the less you need to cut back (or the bigger the benefit if you do).
Whilst writing 'increase your income' is very easy for me to do, in reality it is much harder to do. However, there may be opportunities you had not considered which may be worth exploring such as overtime, weekend shifts, unsociable shifts, additional responsibilities that could be taken on, or even a second job. Switching jobs could also be an option as could be starting a completely new career.
In other words increasing income is not always about getting further up the greasy pole, sometimes it is about taking a sideways move into any area you had not considered before.
One last point on income: while
So often we are told by Business Marketing Professionals to promote our businesses thru networking and yet some people hear this and just do not understand. For instance if you have a local business, which does business in your specific community then networking is very easy; Go to a few Chamber of Commerce Mixers, join a leads club and attend some community social functions and well you are well on your way indeed.However consider if you are in an esoteric business and do business with folks all over the country or the Globe and do a lot of your business online, over the phone and thru the mail. Then how do you network properly? Well what is interesting is it is much the same in theory really, not much different at all. In local business social functions you are pressing the flesh so to speak and in networking online you are touching base with those who are in your industry.It pays to be on a first name basis with those vendors, suppliers, consultants and even competitors in your industry. They need to know your li
Any other thing you can do in this area to consolidate debt and reduce overall interest payments needs to be examined closely.
However, you need to resist the temptation to make any loan consolidations that involve using your property for security. There is probably another way, so explore the other ways first.
The last section is income. You may have been tough with yourself in the cost section, but the other dimension to the budget is of course income. The more you increase your income, the less you need to cut back (or the bigger the benefit if you do).
Whilst writing 'increase your income' is very easy for me to do, in reality it is much harder to do. However, there may be opportunities you had not considered which may be worth exploring such as overtime, weekend shifts, unsociable shifts, additional responsibilities that could be taken on, or even a second job. Switching jobs could also be an option as could be starting a completely new career.
In other words increasing income is not always about getting further up the greasy pole, sometimes it is about taking a sideways move into any area you had not considered before.
One last point on income: while you have the budget sheet in front of you it is worth evaluating the cost of work. In other words, when you add up travel, parking, fuel, dry cleaning, child care, work wear etc then subtract it from your income - that will give you a true figure of what you earn.
Finalising the Budget
The above represents a substantial investment in time and effort. The end result will be a budget sheet which is accurate, personally optimised and which puts you in control of your own finances.
Having made this effort, you should now have identified specific allowances for each item and you now need to be sure that money is allocated each month to cover those items whether they occur weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly.
It is unlikely that you will be able to reduce all of your costs, move house, change jobs, etc, all at once, so you may have recognised already that this budgeting exercise can be a progressive thing that happens over time.
Therefore, to begin with, you will need to ensure that costs are under control and, as a minimum, outgoings equal income. Over time you will look for cost savings and income increasing opportunities and, once taken advantage of, you can then revisit the budget sheet, put in the new figures and move on.
One completely free benefit to all of this is that, once it is all complete and you are sticking to it, you get a full night's sleep whenever you want.
Next
Sticking to the budget
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