Planning

Unplanned Expenses and Your Budget

by Jeff on July 9, 2009

While a budget in one form or another is a must-have financial tool, it’d quickly become big and ugly if you tried to anticipate and include every expense you might run in to. You’d quickly lose interest and wouldn’t stick with your budget, right?

A budget is a basic recorder of recurring expenses, and trying to cover a purchase you didn’t foresee is like fit a round peg into a square hole. Unplanned expenses happen to everyone though, so what we can do about them?

Anticipate the expense

This sounds counter-intuitive to the rest of this post, but you don’t need a magic 8-ball to do it. If you’re aware of the next time your car is going to need an oil change, you can set aside that money in your budget to cover it. That way you don’t step up to the counter to pay for it while wondering where that money is going to come from.

Setting aside $30 or $50 each month for unplanned expenses will help you cover those little repairs or fees you might run into. and you’ll have even more on hand if you don’t use it during the month.

Lock down your emergency fund

This is extremely important. You are the only person who can determine what you consider an emergency, but don’t run for cover the first time you run into a problem. Your emergency fund shouldn’t be the first place you go when you find yourself short a couple of bucks, it should be the last.

Cut back In other areas of your budget

Did you plan for three tanks of gas this month but ended up using only two? Don’t spend that money on just anything, move it over to cover an unexpected expense. If you’re living within your budget, you’ll probably find that you’ll be able to do this quite often. When you have months where everything runs smoothly, you’ll be able to save that cash!

Make extra money

If you’ve got the time and the desire you could earn a couple extra bucks to meet your needs for that month. Are you going to babysit for your neighbor, or have a garage sale? That extra income can help you when you don’t have another way to pay for something.

Find another way

Can you borrow the item you need? If you can get someone to loan you the item you’re considering purchasing, you can keep from incurring another expense. Taking a bit of time to consider your options and see if there’s another way to solve your problem may help you save money.

Unexpected expenses are a major factor of what I call “the month-to-month monster,” living paycheck to paycheck. If you can work to reduce the impact of these purchases on your budget, you’ll be able to strengthen your financial foundation and get to the point where you can begin to establish real wealth.

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Evaluating My Progress Towards 2009 Goals

by Flexo on July 8, 2009

Now that the halfway mark of 2009 has passed by, it wouldn’t hurt to review the financial mini-goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year and determine how far I have strayed from my path. For me, these goals are only milestones. They help my gauge my progress but numbers in my bank account have little correlation to my quality of life and do not have much bearing on my non-monetary, real goals.

Last year, my success at reaching arbitrary financial milestones was hindered by the stock market, so when I set my goals for 2009, I focused on metrics that are not affected by short-term investment performance.

Income

My goal for “Other Earned Income” in 2009 is $108,000, or an average $9,000 per month. My stretch goal is to surpass this year’s success with $132,000.

“Other Earned Income” refers to the gross revenue (before subtracting expenses) derived from running a number of websites, most notably Consumerism Commentary. I don’t write much about how I earn money through these websites because I feel it is too introspective to publish. It would be like writing a book about writing that book or singing a song about singing that song. There is a market for self-referential writing, but I’m not particularly interested in writing about the minutiae of blogging. Consumerism Commentary is a blog about money, not a blog about blogging.

Anyway, according to my June financial reports, I am on target to meet my target as long as I maintain about $4,000 Other Earned Income per month for the rest of the year. Barring any unforeseen problems, this is achievable, but mostly due to significant income earned earlier this year. To meet my stretch goal, I would have to earn an average of more than $8,000 each month for the rest of the year. That is less likely as I expect the remainder of the year will look more like May than March.

Grade: B.

Investing

Contribute the full $16,500 to my 401(k).

Contribute the maximum to a Roth IRA if possible; if not, contribute to a Traditional IRA and convert the account to a Roth IRA in 2010.

Contribute the maximum to an SEP IRA.

Invest $250 per month into an account to help pay for future children’s education.

According to my most recent pay stub, I have transferred $8,836 to my 401(k), split evenly between “Before-tax” and “Roth” contributions. It seems I may overshoot my goal, so I will make sure to adjust my contributions to prevent my 401(k) from hitting the maximum early, reducing the amount of employer match I receive.

I have not yet contributed to my 2009 IRAs yet, although this might be a good time to do so. Usually I want until the tax deadline, but with the stock market hitting lows again, I should consider starting my IRAs now.

Although I set a goal to invest $250 per month for the education expenses for a theoretical future child or children, I have not done this. My internal debate is whether to start the fund now and get a head start or to wait until I plan on having children, reducing the risk of being penalized for withdrawing the funds at some future date without education expenses to cover.

Grade: C.

Saving

I’m working on finding a tax accountant to ensure that my tax bill isn’t any higher than it is supposed to be. After I pay my taxes, I’d like to take half of whatever I have left and earmark that amount for a down payment on a house.

Through 2009 so far, my savings progress has been strong. I do not think I specifically earmarked half of my remaining savings on April 15 for a future home purchase, but I have been paying attention to my “Orange House Fund.” No, I do not particularly plan on purchasing a house colored orange; “orange” refers to the fact that this bank account is housed at ING Direct, a bank that has claimed orange as its color. The fund currently sits at about $13,000, and I add money occasionally.

If I need to buy a house in a hurry, I could draw from a number of other accounts to come up with 20 percent of a reasonably priced house in this area. I tend to distribute leftover income to a variety of goal-based savings accounts, and a house is only one of these.

Grade: B.

I did not set a net worth target for 2009 as this number is pulled in different directions by the stock market, something over which I have very little (that is, zero) effect. My investing strategy is to stay invested in the stock market for all assets other than cash I might need in a few years, so as time goes by, my net worth is driven increasingly by the performance of stocks.

How are you progressing against your goals?

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Goals Bring About Real Results

by Jeff on June 25, 2009

Do you have a 5-year financial plan? What about just a general idea? Do you know where you want to be financially in 25 years? Have you ever set a financial goal? If you decided you wanted to save $5,000 this year, could you do it? Far too often we get into situations where we let money control us, instead of being in control of our money. Learning to set and achieve goals is one of the simplest ways to achieve the financial freedom you’re seeking, but it might be one of the hardest as well.

A goal, a purpose, and a plan

A 5 year financial plan can sound like a daunting challenge. Most of us have trouble staying within our monthly budget (it’s those darn Jelly-Bellys), and trying to find the time and and energy to draw up a plan can be difficult. The good thing is, your financial plan or goals can be as complex or as simple as you’d like. You can simply decide that you’re going to save 10% of every paycheck, or that you’ll take your lunch to work three days a week.

Don’t cut back just for the sake of cutting back, though – have a purpose. If you cancel your cable to save money, save that money! If that $90 just cycles back into your monthly budget you’re reducing your expenses for nothing. You can use that extra money to pay off debt, or to save up for a new purchase. You could pay off your car, or buy the latest season of 24. See how easily a purpose can become a goal?

Motivation

A purpose and a goal provide an important factor that comes into play when you’re making a change in your life – motivation. If you don’t want to do something, it’s harder to do it. Spending is a habit for some people. It’s difficult to break habits. But now you have a carrot on a stick – your goal. You can weigh everything you want to do with your money with what you really want. If you’re not sure if you want something, compare it with how much you want your goal. Which one do you want more?

Put a visual reminder of your goal somewhere where you can see it every day. If you want a new dress, print out a picture and tape it on your fridge. My wife and I have our savings goals charted on a piece of paper on our bedroom wall. Every time I want something I head over to that chart and see how much closer we’d be to our goals if I would save that money instead of spending it.

Your Goals Become Your Guides

Now that you have a goal, and you’re weighing different ways to achieve it, you’re formulating a plan. That didn’t take very long, did it? In its simplest form, a plan is really just a collection of goals, and how you’ll achieve them. Short-term goals have smaller plans, and long-term goals can have elaborate plans. You can control a plan by limiting it to what you need to succeed.

If you’re trying to save up for a down payment on a house, your plan should include what you’ll do to get to that point. Not eating out once a week so you have money to save up for a TV is good, but it’s not a part of that plan. Your mini-plans and big plans (your goals) can help you determine what in your budget is a need, and what is a want. It can help you learn to moderate your spending and to make better financial decisions. If you want to retire in 10 years, you’ll think twice about buying a $100,000 boat if you don’t have the money for it.

Don’t Give Up

Now, a word on goals. If you set a goal and don’t reach it when you want to, or struggle and want to give up, don’t. You can always achieve your goals, you just need to re-think them and re-commit yourself to achieving that goal again. Just because you splurged and spent more than your budget or had some unexpected problem that threw you way off doesn’t mean you can’t try again.

Our financial strategy is goal-driven, and it’s brought success, happiness and peace of mind. We still have rough spots, but we’re more equipped to deal with them and can minimize the damage. Learning to let your purposes become goals and plans will help you on the road to financial independence.

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How To Be Twenty Times Better Than Barack Obama

by Flexo on May 21, 2009

Read the full article at the Quicken blog.

I offered to write articles for Quicken occasionally, and the first of these articles was published yesterday. It focuses on trimming budgets and expenditures.

President Obama has proposed cutting the federal budget by $17 billion. That’s a large amount of money, but it’s a tiny slice, 0.5%, of the total federal budget.

Here is an excerpt:

I would love to cut back my expenses like POTUS, so here is what a 0.5% reduction would do for me: $20. That’s one dinner out over the course of a month or perhaps a movie date for two, not including refreshments. If your budget is closer to average, your 0.5% may be lucky if it approaches $5… I think you — and I — can do twenty times better. Cutting 10% from the federal budget would be a tall order, bound to infuriate interest groups and pundits… But cutting 10% from your budget won’t anger anyone…

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Money Basics: Budgets

by Flexo on April 29, 2009

April is National Financial Literacy Month in the United States. In most cases, schools do not extensively teach financial skills. Teenagers, highly susceptible to messages from the media, often do not have guidance from teachers, who are not trained to teach financial skills, or from parents, many of whom do not model healthy financial behavior. This series of articles at Consumerism Commentary serves to help inspire discussion about basic financial concepts. Please feel free to forward this article to someone who might benefit from a basic financial overview.

Forming a budget is a key to taking control of your finances, and they are best begun when you are young. This is the fourth article in the Money Basics series; so far this series has covered checking accounts, savings accounts, and interest.

I will be the first to admit that I don’t like budgets. My personal approach is to review and adjust my spending rather than create spending limits in advance. However, there was a time in my life that budgeting was necessary, and there was a time that I should have focused on a budget but didn’t.

When I was a teenager, I spent some time visiting one of my friends. He had material desires, like many teenagers, but relied on his parents. Often, his requests were met with a common parental response: “I’d love to help you, but it’s not in our budget.” My impression was not that his parents actually kept a formal budget; this response was just an excuse to curtail the collection of useless things. Regardless of the truth behind the words, a budget came to mean a restriction or limitation designed to eliminate fun and the things we want.

It’s true that budgeting, assigning categories to your expenses and deciding how to focus your spending, is not a fun exercise. And I think those who try to make it artificially fun are missing the point. Like bathing and cleaning your house, it’s just something that needs to be done — at least, at first.

Whether your income is from an allowance, a part-time job, or a full-time job, it’s smart to create your own budget. The point of the budget isn’t to curtail fun, it’s to ensure you have the money for fun when you want it. If chores entitle you to $75 a month, you have $75 to split into categories of spending and savings. If you have no required expenses like car insurance or gasoline, you may decide that $40 could be directed towards savings (a good idea) while the remaining $35 can be used for movies, concerts, or anything else you may enjoy. Savings should be the first part of your budget, and with no expenses you could put at least half your income into savings with the rest available for fun.

Budgeting gets more complicated when you have more responsibilities and therefore more expenses. For example, if you own a car you will need to factor in car insurance, gasoline, maintenance and repairs. Suddenly you are not having fun with the money you earn, or at least, not as much of the money you earn. Unfortunately that’s the stigma of budgeting.

Visualize your budgeting

In today’s world of electronic transactions, debit cards, and online access you your bank, it’s quaint to think about placing cash in envelopes with labels. This is a great way to visualize your budget, however. Start with a set of envelopes labeled “savings,” “car” (or “transportation”), “food,” “rent,” “utilities,” “charity” and “fun.” In each of these envelopes, you will place a portion of the income you receive. If you imagine you receive your income in cash at the beginning of each month, this envelope system makes sense. Start by putting 10% of your income directly in your savings envelope. This is a good habit to fall into early.

Rent and utilities are generally predictable expenses that are roughly the same very month. On day one, when you receive your income, place the exact amount of cash you know you will owe for rent and utilities into the appropriate envelopes. After these set expenses, you can decide how to divvy up your cash.

You know you will need to eat throughout the month, so that might be your next focus. It may be harder to imagine how much money you will need for food without tracking your spending for a time, but make a guess for now. Do the same for your transportation envelope. The remainder can be split between charity and fun, but consider beefing up your savings envelope, too.

Don’t seal the envelopes. You will need to remove the money once your expenses are due, but you are also allowed to transfer money from one envelope to another. Going on a road trip? Transfer some money this month from your savings envelope to the transportation envelope. (If you don’t have enough in the savings envelope, it may be a sign that you’re not ready to go on the road trip.) If you eat less this month, you can transfer some cash from the food envelope to another, such as savings or fun.

For your first budget, use a pencil and paper, even if you don’t use actual cash and envelopes. Look at the numbers and get used to working with them, doing simple calculations to make sure you’re spending less than you’re earning and saving at least 10% of your income. A pencil and paper system is great because it’s practically free and completely customizable. There are free online tools that help you budget, like Quicken Online and Mint, but their features can be overwhelming if all you want to do is set up initial flexible guidelines for your spending. Software designed specifically for budgeting, like Mvelopes, You Need a Budget, and PearBudget have thorough features, but you must buy the software or pay a monthly fee for its use. And unless you have room for a budget category called “software,” you may want to skip this in favor of the simpler but just as effective pencil and paper.

Suggestions for advanced budgeting

Here are a few tips I shared when I wrote about taking control of your finances.

Consider the 60% rule. I’m not a fan of rules, but sometimes a guideline can help get you started on the right path. As an individual, you can decide what’s right for you, but sometimes an example helps. The 60% rule suggests that the first 60% of your gross income (before income taxes are taken out) should be designated for your non-discretionary, essential expenses, like housing, food, clothing, and taxes. The rest of the income should be split with 10% going towards savings, 10% towards retirement, and the rest for “fun,” or your discretionary expenses.

Reward yourself for staying under budget. If your budget is realistic — not too difficult nor too easy to achieve — then you should reward yourself when you spend less than you plan. With your “fun” expenses, your spending may be variable month to month and difficult to predict. If you make a conscientious effort to spend less than you expected, perhaps by seeing fewer movies in the theater or cutting back on vacation plans, you have extra money left in your envelope (virtual or otherwise). First, move that excess money to savings. If you don’t perceive savings to be an intrinsic reward, treat yourself to something you’d like.

Use ING Direct’s subaccount feature. Since you can split money in ING Direct’s high-yield savings account into separate buckets, you can label these subaccounts to match your budgeting categories. this lets you earn a decent interest rate while keeping your money organized.

Pay yourself first. No matter what, make sure some of your excess income is diverted to your savings. If you set up direct deposit into your checking or savings account, this will require less work. Your savings envelope contains 100% of your income (minus income taxes) after you are paid, and from there you can distribute funds to your remaining envelopes.

(The following tip is new.)

Budgets are not set in stone. Once you have the process down to a science, don’t be afraid to loosen your grip and introduce flexibility. You can borrow from one category to pay for larger expenses in another, and you can borrow from one month to pay for the next. Just don’t get caught into the trap of borrowing from your future.

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Flexo’s Financial Goals and Resolutions for 2009

by Flexo on January 5, 2009

One lesson I learned this past year, after setting financial goals for 2008 and evaluating my progress as of last week, is that I shouldn’t set goals that are heavily dependent upon forces beyond my control, such as the stock market at large. My main target of a $210,000 “modified net worth” assumed the stock market would not perform so poorly. There’s that idiom about assumptions.

I’ll take a slightly different approach with my financial targets for 2009.

Financial goals for 2009

Income

Last year, I looked past my day job salary towards the income from my side jobs, including Consumerism Commentary. My target for 2009 was to earn $100,000 from a variety of sources outside of my primary job. I succeeded, with an official tally of $121,000. I’d like to see this year-over-year increasing trend continue, but again I need to look at the market.

Most of this income comes from advertisers, and many of these advertisers are financial companies. I don’t have to look hard to find news stories about the troubles facing companies in the financial sector. In addition, experts are predicting a slow year for internet advertising across all sectors. While a year ago I was considering following some of my blogging colleagues by quitting my day job and pursuing blogging and related projects full-time. This is a luxury I’d like to have, but I’m still playing it conservatively. As long as I can continue to basically work full time with two jobs without losing more of my sanity, I’ll do so.

My goal for “Other Earned Income” in 2009 is $108,000, or an average $9,000 per month. My stretch goal is to surpass this year’s success with $132,000.

Investing

My investing progress for 2008 was haphazard and unorganized. I’d like to be more clear in 2009 about achieving investing targets. This is what I’d like to accomplish by year end (or by the time I file my 2009 tax return in April 2010). The ability to reach these goals depends on earning the “Other Earned Income” I’ve indicated as my goal.

Contribute the full $16,500 to my 401(k).
Contribute the maximum to a Roth IRA if possible; if not, contribute to a Traditional IRA and convert the account to a Roth IRA in 2010.
Contribute the maximum to an SEP IRA.
Invest $250 per month into an account to help pay for future children’s education.

Saving

According to my year-end balance sheet, I currently have over $80,000 in various savings accounts and money market funds. I have a sinking feeling that a good portion of this is earmarked for the IRS. I’m working on finding a tax accountant to ensure that my tax bill isn’t any higher than it is supposed to be. After I pay my taxes, I’d like to take half of whatever I have left and earmark that amount for a down payment on a house.

Net worth

Last year, I made the mistake of setting a goal for my total “modified net worth.” I failed thanks to poor performance in my investments. Had I moved my investments to something safer than stocks at the first sign of trouble, I may have been able to make my goal. By doing so, I would be reacting to short-term indicators. Had I sold off stocks and bought safer bonds, I might have achieved a positive return on my investments and surpassed my 2008 goals. Staying invested in stocks was the right choice for my investments that won’t be tapped for a few decades.

For 2009, I will not set a net worth target. It is more meaningful to focus on my income and keep my spending in check.

Throughout the year, I will occasionally compare my progress against these goals. I have fewer goals this year, and the ones that I am keeping are the most meaningful, measurable, and mostly within my control.

What are your financial goals for 2009?

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Evaluating This Year’s Progress Against My Goals

by Flexo on December 28, 2008

In December 2007, I set a number of financial goals or targets to be accomplished by the end of this year. In some cases I was successful while in others I fell short. It’s important to keep things in perspective; when I set these goals, the economy was in a significantly different state. The goals reflected a positive economic outlook but a cautious approach to my income. Here is how I measure up.

Goals for 2008

Income:I don’t see much growth ahead in my salary, but I would say that if I continue to work hard on my side projects, one of which is this blog, $100,000 in additional income is not out of the question. The industry could change drastically, so one year from now, I could be looking back at these goals and laughing at the ridiculousness of that number. I’ll call $125,000 my stretch goal. If I am able to earn that much next year, it may be time to leave my day job and devote myself to my projects full-time.

Result: success. I’m on target for earning about $117,000 in additional income this year, between advertising, affiliates (percentage of product sales driven by my websites), and freelance writing. I feel like I don’t have much to show for it, however, and I am concerned about my upcoming tax bill.

Investing: I plan on contributing the full $15,5000 to 401(k) accounts. I also plan on contributing as much as possible to my 2008 SEP IRA account, but the amount I can invest depends on how much income I make from my side business.

Result: not success. According to my final pay statement of 2008, I contributed $14,142 to my 401(k), split between before-tax and Roth 401(k) after-tax contributions. I missed the target by not carefully planning the contributions. In February, I increased my 401(k) contribution rate from 25% to 33% of my salary. Later in the year, I bumped up my contributions again to 50% of my salary, the maximum allowed, to try to reach the $15,500 goal by the end of the year. It was too late, however, and I fell short.

I won’t fund my SEP IRA for 2008 until I file my tax return because the deductions I take will determine how much I am allowed to contribute.

Debt: I have about $13,000 left in student loans at an interest rate above 4%. This is the only debt I currently carry. It is reasonable for me to completely eliminate this debt by the end of the the year. I have the cash to do so now… Stretch goal: eliminate the $13,000 debt by the end of June 2008.

Result: success. Earlier this month, I sent the final check to my student loan servicing company and am now completely debt-free. It was an anticlimactic experience for me; I’ve had cash available to pay off the student loan for a long time, but I wanted to keep cash on my balance sheet for as long as possible. Still, by the end of the year, I was paying over $1,000 per month to eliminate the debt. It will be nice not to send those payments out the door.

Saving: My primary saving goal is for future real estate, so I want to have $40,000 earmarked for a down payment (plus closing costs) either by the end of the year or by the time I sign on the dotted line. I may not use all of that cash depending on how it would affect my liquidity at the time. I’d also like to double my emergency fund so I could last four months without significantly reducing my expenses and without tapping credit. Stretch goal: accomplish these goals by the end of June 2008.

Result: not success. According to a preview of my year-end balance sheet, I have over $70,000 in savings accounts spread across a number of banks, plus about $10,000 in money market mutual funds at Vanguard. I need to consolidate these accounts and properly organize the funds. I should be able to find $40,000 to earmark for a down payment. My emergency fund, or the cash I have in an ING Direct account labeled “Emergency Fund,” has increased this year from about $8,000 to about $13,000. Like the down payment earmark, it’s a question of moving money from one account to another, but the cash is there.

Charity: Last month, I established a charitable gift fund in my name. In lieu of creating my own foundation, an expensive and overly administrative process, this is going to allow me to direct my contributions to non-profit organizations at any time easily. My goals for this year are to choose two or three organizations to support, grant at least $5,000 to the organizations, and contribute an additional $10,000 over the course of the year to the fund.

Result: not success. With the stock market experiencing a major dip this past year, I was reluctant to distribute funds from the charitable gift fund. I added to the fund this year, and rather than investing it all, I left half in a money market fund and invested the rest in a stock market index fund. With this strategy, I can grant half of my contribution in 2009 and allow the remainder to grow. The goal is to grow the fund to a level at which the grants can come from the interest and gains alone, with the principal left to sustain giving every year. In 2008, my charitable giving was funded outside of the charitable giving account.

Net worth: I am ending the year with a modified net worth of about $120,000. I’ll have a more concrete total when I post my full financial reports in the next few days. This number will likely be about twice the amount of my net worth at the end of 2006. I’d like to continue this trend by doubling my net worth by the end of 2008, but that may not be realistic. Let’s call this goal $210,000 by December 31, and the stretch goal will be $240,000.

Result: not success. I did end 2007 with a modified net worth of $123,000, a little less than twice my net worth at the end of 2006 ($69,000). Doubling my net worth would be a great trend, but the stock market ensured that this would not be a possibility in 2008. Despite investing throughout 2008, my investments have only increased $5,000, including my contributions. That’s a negative rate of return. My modified net worth at the end of 2008 is heading towards $180,000, significantly short of my goal. I would likely have exceeded the goal if the stock market increased at a rate closer to average.

Some of the goals could have been reached by rearranging or reorganizing my accounts. I should have considered the effect that a down stock market could have on my finances when I initially determined my goals of 2008. In the next few days, I’ll set my goals for 2009, a year that will present a lot of questions for me.

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Take Control of Your Finances Part 7: Set Goals

by Flexo on December 8, 2008