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 )