Budgeting is an integral part of managing your finances. There has never been a better time to start budgeting. A good budget will allow you to understand when and where your money is coming from and, more importantly, where it is going. As the old saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!”

Follow Keypoint’s six-step BUDGET process below and you’ll have an effective budget and financial management system in place in no time:

Begin

Set a time, get your financial statements, bills and invoices together and start recording your income and expenses. A month by month view will help you budget more effectively.

Understand

Once you have recorded your income and expenses you need to analyse them. Review your spending behaviour.

Decide

From your review, decide if there is any income that can be increased or added, or otherwise if there are any nonessential expenses that can be reduced or removed. You are now on your way to devising a working budget.

Goal

Goal-oriented budgeting is the best way to ensure you save money. Set a goal – determine what percentage of your income you want to save upfront and then calculate what you now have remaining and available to allocate to expenses.

Execute

Don’t delay. Execute all the income and expense changes from your budget review to meet your goal.

Track

To be an effective financial management tool, a budget needs to be tracked. There is no use in just planning a goal, you need to ensure you are sticking to it! Continually check that you are on track.