NEWBIE IN LIVING BY YOUR OWN?

I want to share my experience about the time i confused with my budget when I still newbie in living by my own and how I manage it. Now, I’m 23^rd years old. My job is a tax consultant and sometimes to fill the free time, I write a story, so you can call me an novel author. Previously, because I live apart from my parents, I stayed in my university’s dorm. But because now I already graduated, of course I must move. With my savings for four years and my salary, finally I could ‘check’ one of my ‘checklist’ of my life goals, there was financial goal. My financial goal is buy an apartment, or at least rent an apartment.

My problems of living in an apartment is now I have to pay bigger for my rent, food, utilities, and my household items. To manage it, I searched some ways, and then I found a easy way, there is I must write and watch out my income and my expenses. My income each month is from my salaries. My salary from my job each month, tax consultant, is 8 million rupiahs. From the sidejob as an novel author is 5 million rupiahs. So my total income each month is 13 million rupiahs.

The expenses is divided into fixed and flexible expenses. First, fixed expenses, there are rent, car insurance, and car payment. My rent each month is 4 million rupiahs. My car insurance is 500 thousand rupiahs and the payment is 2 million rupiahs. So, my total fixed expenses is 6,5 million rupiahs. My first flexible expenses is savings, there is 1,5 million rupiahs. My food is same with my savings. My utilities, such as gas, electric, water, is 1 million rupiahs. For my car, of course I must spend for the gas and oil is 500  thousand rupiahs, parking and tools is 100 thousand rupiahs, and the repairs is 200 thousand rupiahs. The clothing and the entertainment are 200 thousand rupiahs. The last is for the house, i spend for household items, 200 thousand rupiahs, and my personal items (such as shampoo, soap, and powder), 500 thousand rupiahs. So, my total flexible expenses is 5,9 million rupiahs. The total of my monthly expenses is 12,4 million.

After the end of the month, I have to watch out my budget, whether it minus or plus. Minus or plus is obtained from income minus expenses. My income is 13 million rupiahs, and my expenses is 12,4 million rupiahs. So, the result is plus 0,6 million rupiahs or 600 thousand rupiahs. As the reflection, his budget is already good I think, because it isn’t minus from my income. But, I think I must decrease my expenses. The reason is 600 thousand rupiahs is measly, my target is at least 2 million rupiahs, so I can give it to my parents. Reflection is a must each month, with reflection you can manage your budget better for the next month. The reflection is the closing of my story. I hope my story can help you for manage your budget, especially for a newbie in living for your own.

 THE ART OF BUDGETING

               The purpose of budgeting is a forecast of income and expenditure and a tool for decision making.  

The budgeting process is the way a person goes about building its budget. The first phase is assess your 

personal and financial situation (needs, values, life). The illustration is began with my explanation about 

my situation. I’m a college student who studying at Harvard for Bachelor of Economy and i have a 

part-time job as a waitress. Because of my study, I must move from my hometown, Mexico. Each months

 i need dormitory, savings, food, bus fare, medical expenses, clothing, entertaiment, household  items,

 tuition and school expenses.

               And the second phase is set personal and financial goals. My personal and financial goals such 

as educatin goals, social goals, financia goals, family goals, health/physical goals, and my recreational 

goals. I have three important goals, there are educational goal, financial goal, and family goal.

   First, my eduational goal. My educational goal is Magister of Economy after i graduate Bachelor

 of Economy. To make it happen, i must do something now to work toward this goal, for me that

 are a money and a good resume of my study. The resources i need to achieve this goal are money

 for the  tuition and i need a good textbooks for my study. But for the money i can handle it with

 search some institutions that providing scholarships.

   The second goal is financial goal. My financial goals is buy an appartment. The reason is because

 after i graduate from Harvard, i must leave my dormitor so my time to realize it is four years. The

 resouces i need is money of course. What i can be doing now to work toward this goal? Of course

 increase my saving. My plan is i want to save 50$ from now on.  I have four years to at least to

 collecting advance of the apartment. As a college student, i think that its unpossible to buy an 

apartment on my own with my part-time job as a waitress. 

   And my last illustration for the goals is for family goals. My family goal is take them to a 

country that they want, China. For the third times i said that my resources is money. So, my

 efforts that is savings and i think i must add a new part-time job to realize that or i must move

 to another part-time job with higher salary. I want to realize it within a period of 6 years.

   I always said about money, money, and money. So where does your money come from? 

Because i live aboard from my house, my parents sent me 100$ each month. Because 100$ 

isn’t enough for my lifecost, i take a part-time job as a waitress with the salary is 80$. 

My expect to be my source of income in the near future, of course i don’t want to burdening

 my parents again, so my future source is my salary. My feeling about being financially dependent

 of course proud and relieved because i don’t burdening my parents again.

The third phase is Create a budget for fixed and variable expenses based on projected income. By the beginning of march, I created a budget for my expenses. The forth phase is Monitor current spending (saving, investing) patterns. Everytime I spent my money for something, I always write it on a book. At the end of the month, total that and that is your expenses that months. My spending pattern is of course i choose needs more than wants. But sometimes i still choose wants, especially on entertaiment, food, and clothing.

The fifth phase is Compare your budget to what you have actually spent. By the end of this month, I compare my budget and my actual spending, and look after the difference for the both of them. And the last is review financial progress and revise budgeted amounts. It will be necessary to revise your budget because of unforeseen events. You may lose your job, take a pay cut, or have an emergency where you need to spend more money that you usually would for a given month. The steps are figure out how much you have income for the given month, subtract your necessary expenses, and subtract your unforeseen expense that came up for the month.

Before i finish this article, i will give you some tips about how to cut expenses. There are cut out coupons for the things you usually buy at the store, and not for the things you do not need and write a grocery list, so you do not forget anything and it helps you stay on target and not get sidetracked. I hope thats can help you to setting up and  maintaning your budget so you can realize your goals. Remember that do what is right, what is easy.

(cr. http://www.wikihow.com/Maintain-a-Budget-for-Personal-Use )

Name : Vanesa

Class  : PA201

NIM  : 1521039

 

HOW TO MAKE OUR OWN MONEY

A goal without a plan is just a wish, as well as to make our own money. There are three career planning process, that are assess your personal interest, abilities, and career goals; evaluate the current employment market; and identify specific job opportunities. The illustration for this are; my personal interest is make a hand made knitting. My ability is sew some knitting hats, knitting suits, etc. My career goal is have a boutique so I can explore my personal interest and making my own money. About the market, in my opinion the market condition now is good for knitting business because it’s rare. I think specific job opportunities for my career is boutique manager.

After a plan, of course, there is the implementation phase, that is a job interview. But, before that we must apply application letter to the company that we want. For application letter, introduce ourselves and explain which role we are applying for. In this illustration, we will apply as a boutique manager. Describe our education and employment background using the examples we've matched to the job description.

First of all the process of a job interview, we must preparing for a job interview. The preparation such as research the organization, practice interviewing skills, prepare some answer for common questions, prepare proper dress and grooming, and plan to arrive thirty minutes before interview. Common questions such as “What activities have helped you expand your interests, abilities, and knowledge?”, “In what types of situations have you done your best work?”, “What are your major strengths?”, etc.

During the interview we must relax and be ourselves, answer question completely and calmly, ask questions to help us better know the organization, and ask when we might hear from the organization. After the interview write down notes on how can we improve for the next interview and don’t forget to promptly send a thank-you letter to person with whom we interviewed.

        Lastly, all will be in vain if we can not become a good employee. Tips how to

 be a good employee are behave professionally, learn to criticism gracefully, cultivate 

good relationships with the people in the organization, always be productive, be on 

time, learn to do our job, and do it well. This is all the theory about ‘making money’,

but theory without practice is just as incomplete as practice without theory. Making

 your own money isn’t easy but do what is right, not what is easy.

(cr. http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Good-Employee)