Today I decided to share something on the topic of managing your personal finances. Everyone should once in a while do a personal budget calculation. If you do not know how much you earn and spend it is a real challenge to manage your personal finances. How to estimate which car you can afford? How to calculate how much savings will you have in 1 year? How to assess which personal monthly costs you can reduce? When planning some tough personal expenditures I had to tackle all these questions. I wanted an Excel spreadsheet which would provide me with all these answers. I wasn’t comfortable with sharing my finance information with some Web page sites which provide such capabilities. So I made a solution of my own:
The Steps for personal budget calculation
These are the 3 simple steps you need to follow to assess your personal budget.
Insert your monthly expenditures
First you need to provide all your monthly expenditures. At first it is good to start with estimates. You all ready probably remember how much you spend on your mortgage, car etc.
Insert your savings and interest rates
Secondly provide the information on your current savings and saving’s accounts interest rates. It’s good to also include the amount of cash you have on your current account to get a clear picture.
Insert your monthly income, hit calculate and admire the results
Before you proceed to calculate your personal budget input your monthly income. Now hit “Calculate” and admire the results. Congratulations! You now have a clear picture of your personal budget!
Next steps
I use this calculator on a regular basis to always be able to take informed financial decisions especially before making serious financial commitments e.g. buying a house, car etc. So should you. Don’t rely on bank clerks to tell you how much mortgage or financial loans you can afford. Look for yourself.
