Use last year’s pay stubs as a reference point and adjust as needed (perhaps you recently got a raise or finalized a new business deal). Estimate how much you’ll earn each month over the next year.Variable/discretionary ordinary living expenses (such as food, clothing, household expenses, medical payments, and other items for which your monthly spending tends to fluctuate).Fixed costs (such as housing payments, utility bills, charitable contributions, insurance premiums, and loan payments).Separate your spending categories into main buckets.(This is an especially useful exercise if you have uneven income.) For instance, let’s say you spent $500 in January on groceries, which was 12% of your household earnings. Note how much you spent in each category every month, as well as what percentage of your monthly income that spending represented. Categorize all of your expenses over the past year.Add up your take-home pay over the past year.Most institutions let you export your transactions as a CSV file that you can open in Google Sheets, Excel, or Numbers. A year’s worth can give you a good sense of how much you tend to spend over a given period of time. Collect all of your bank and credit card statements over the past year.(Ever get hit with a large bill, such as for an auto repair or emergency dental treatment? Those kinds of things can throw your budget off track.) Spreadsheet-based budgets (and some other budgeting tools) prompt you to create a myriad of categories and assign a dollar amount to each one, which is not only overwhelming but also likely to fail. It tracks your spending, revolving bills, savings goals, and earnings history to estimate how much you have left to spend in a given month in any category you want. We recommend Simplifi for most people because it’s a happy medium between the two. Conversely, zero-balance apps encourage a more hands-on approach, forcing you to account for every dollar you bring in (X amount for savings, Y amount for rent, and so on), but they tend to be idiosyncratic and costly. Tracking apps offer a 30,000-foot view of your finances, display your transactions in real time, and require very little effort to set up. It is possible to get the same benefits offered by Banktivity for less money, but doing this requires using multiple budgeting programs.There are two basic types of budget apps: trackers ( à la Mint) and zero-balancers. One thing that some people will not like is the price of the software. Just label the envelopes, file expenses in the right place, and the software does the rest. This works pretty much like stuffing receipts into an envelope at home. Banktivity allows for envelope budgeting. The budgeting features on the software are traditional and straightforward with one exception. There is a net worth report which will allow individuals to view their overall solvency with a single click. The reports can be saved and compared against reports from another week, month or even another year. ![]() ![]() Banktivity will do that with just a couple of clicks. Budget software is at its best when it can point out areas where spending is a problem. The report function helps to summarize spending. Create a fast food tag, enter restaurant purchases in that category, and the search results will show how much money has been spent on trips to the drive-thru in a given month. ![]() This is useful if users want to know how much they are spending on specific things. ![]() There is also a tagging function which allows users to define custom tags that can be searched. It can be customized in a couple of hours. These workspaces are useful for getting a complete picture of one's finances. For example, a user can pull up their recent bank transactions in one workspace and view their stock portfolio in another. The software must be downloaded or installed on a Mac, but once this is done the program can be synchronized with apps for iOS devices.īanktivity incorporates workspaces to let users access multiple sections of the program simultaneously. Banktivity aims to help users reap the benefits of sound budgeting by providing an all-in-one suite of financial tools. Overall Opinion: When done properly, personal budgeting can be beneficial.
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