Personal Finance: Why Budget? ? Gerken Financial Coaching - In ...

?It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.?

- Theodore Roosevelt

Your Rock

Budgeting is the cornerstone to your financial plan. Without a budget, you will move two steps forward and three steps back. Your progress will be fitful and frustrating. A budget is?a place where you can tell your money exactly where to go and what to do.?You can have a plan that will work.

What is your vision?

Why budget? We budget, so that we can meet our goals and fulfill our vision for the future. We budget for purchases, savings and retirement. We budget for vacation and special events. We budget for our everyday living expenses of food, housing, utilities and transportation. We will budget for the rest of our lives because it gives us control. There are 4 stages that you can pass through with your budgeting and with your personal finance.

• Immediate needs to stay afloat.
• Future needs such as retirement, college education and mortgage payments
• Estate planning for future generations
• Giving

When you first start the budgeting process, you are trying to get organized and pay off your debt. As you work through your steps to success and build a 6 month emergency fund, you begin to look to your future. Your start to see where your money can take you instead of having it all go to pay bills. The light at the tunnel is getting brighter.?As the years of budgeting progress, you have the extra money to fund your retirement account, pay for the kids college, so that they do not have to have student loan debt, and pay off your home mortgage.?Wow, freedom never felt so good. But now what? You have a great income and no bills.

Turn towards others

Now it is time to budget for others. Estate planning for future generations allows you to leave a legacy to others. Planning your giving to charities and to local ministries is a way to help others outside of your family and make an impact on our world for generations to come. No longer are you stuck with your nose to the grindstone living pay check to pay check. Your future is secure and you are in the position to help others towards a better future as well. It all starts with getting organized and committing to writing and sticking with a budget each month. Living on less than you make is a lifestyle choice that not many people choose, but the long term benefits not only get you pointed in the right direction, but will benefit your family and the world for generations.

One step at a time, one budget at a time, we can make a difference.

How has budgeting helped you gain control?

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Tim and Kathryn Gerken are financial coaches in Newcastle, WA. They serve their community in the greater Seattle area with coaching, writing and teaching.

Source: http://www.gerkenfinancialcoaching.com/2013/04/why-budget/

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