Welcome to a post that may change your life. It's funny to think how our small day to day decisions change so much about our future. Buying a cup of coffee instead of drinking it at the office. Hugging a spouse before you leave for work. Helping a stranger who was in a tough situation. Similarly to all of those things, if you don't currently budget, clicking on this post may have just changed your financial life forever.
I've been over budgeting a few times and everyone is familiar with it. Of course not everyone does it (and I was once one of those people). I thought "I don't need to budget, I know where my money is going." The main shift that changed all of this is the purchasing of my house. All of a sudden my money disappeared to different projects and things that drained my account as soon as my paycheck hit. Then I started to budget.
The beginning was not fun at all. Tracking through your finances to find what you spent your money on not only takes a lot of time, but it takes a ton of effort. I failed the first few times I tried to budget. I have "budget July" saved on my computer, I think I opened the file twice before I forgot about it. It took me some time, but I found a solution.
Coming to SOAR FC in 2024 is the new budget plan. This plan involves two spreadsheets, one that you use on your own, and one that we will complete together. Let's start with the fun one!
Your Monthly Budget Spreadsheet:
This is a spreadsheet created to track and auto fill the annoying data that no one likes to input into their budget! It works by either copying your data, or inputting the date, expense type, and amount into the income/expenses area. This area will auto populate the spendings to 6 different tables to help you see where your money is going. The tables include the following topics "bills, expenses, income, savings, investments, and debt." These categories breakdown where your money it going to show you how much you are spending from each paycheck.
I'll be honest with you, I tried to make one on my own. It was the ugliest thing I've seen and my brother laughed at me when he saw it. The one created by a professional looks (and works) much better. It's an easy way for people to budget and it will be included in all plans purchased January 1 and onward!
Monthly Check In Spreadsheet:
This one we will complete together. It's going to show us where your money is going and why. If you have extra expenses during the month that you did not expect, they will show up and be dealt with easily! I hope this tool helps clients find why they are not meeting their self-set financial goals. This will also be in all plans purchased January and onward.
I am so excited to launch these tools, and I have almost all of the issues cleared up so they will work well for everyone! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and I hope you found some value in it! If you are interested in financial counseling but aren't sure what to do, schedule a free Q&A call with me and lets chat. I'll see you later!
Here is a pre-launch sneak peek!
Spencer Dunbar
SOAR Financial Counselor