Easy Financial Planning

If you want to create an easy and effective financial plan all you need is a calendar, pencil, and your bank statements.

Begin your financial plan by writing Payday on the upper left hand side of the day or days you are paid on the calendar. In my Example I am paid every other Friday. Review your bank statements and write the amount of your paycheck next to the appropriate day.

Next, review your bank statements for all of the bills you paid. On the calendar, under the payday from which you paid your bills, list each bill and the amount you paid. You should also determine the amount of money you spend between each paycheck for food and gasoline and include these amounts in your bill payment list.

Once you have listed all of your payments subtract the them from your paycheck amount. The sum of the your paycheck and your bill payments is your available discretionary income. (It's usually a sobering figure and it demonstrates the true picture of where your money is going.)

Now that you have created a baseline of your prior paychecks and bill payments you can use this information to make financial projections for the future. Also, if your depressed due to the amount of your available discretionary income, examine your expenses to determine what changes you can make to increase your discretionary income.

In future articles, we'll continue to build upon this financial plan.