Bi-Weekly Budget
January 9, 2009 by: Dave Ozment 
Bi-Weekly Budget – Same as the Monthly Budget, but this version assumes 2 pay periods per month.
Making a monthly budget should be like tying your shoes except for somehow this simple and critical skill is not taught and rarely discussed. If you don’t operate a household budget then consider this your wakeup call. Get off the couch and participate in your life. Be an adult. Cash – the very life blood of your personal freedom – flows in and out of your hands each month. It’s worth 30 minutes every 30 days to plan and document how you interact with such a vital component of our civilized society. This version provides an example of a single month budget – all income and outflow centralized into a single view for the month.
Photo by: Epiclectic
I had to take Economics in high school. We had to mock invest in Single stocks and track them. We invested in what companies we liked and knew.I dont recall studying Mutual Funds , IRA’s, 401ks but thta woudl have been nice. I learned about those when I was in an interview for an investment company 5 years later. They didnt teach us personal finance and I did it wrong for years. The first time I really did a decent detailed budget was when I was in my 30s. I usually used rough estimates and knew what I had in my account so I thought I was fine on money. When I took Financial Peach U I found how much money I was wasting and I am now able to save about 200.00 a month that was previously being wasted. I dropped credit card interest payments by paying cash for what I need or I dont need it. I do an allocated spending plan where the months pay periods are spent on paper before I ever have the money in my account.
I’m a strong believer in budgeting, not only for individuals personal budget, but especially for married couples starting out. Without some workable budget, they have no idea where the money is going, and in a short period of time, they have more month left than they have money. Another thing to think about is a new budgeting concept where you budget your expenses for the current month based on your income for the previous month. It’s very similar to the envelope budgeting concept and works so much better.
You need a budget´s last blog ..Should I Use Personal Budgeting Software
It’s pretty bad that many people don’t do basic financial planning. This stuff needs to be taught in high school or earlier. Hell, I didn’t even know what an IRA was until my senior year in college when some dude came into a class and told us all that stuff.
Mak´s last blog ..Financial Intelligence: Budgeting
Budgeting is a life skill we kinda assume people know but never really teach. It should be required training. The societal payoffs would be astounding.