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After the diagnosis: 5 steps to sorting out the financial side of chronic illness
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A Powerful Exercise to Alleviate Your Money Worries
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4 Questions to Ask Before Taking on New Debt
Out-of-control debt can turn your life into a nightmare. [Read more…]
Debt Confessions: Tips for a Tough Conversation
“I have $60,000 in credit card debt, so you may not want to marry me” and other ideas for debt confessions. [Read more…]
5 financial choices you will regret in 5 years
In my line of work, I hear people express financial regrets often. Here is a list of top 5 money decisions that are likely to make you wish for a “re-do”. Catch them before it’s too late! [Read more…]
Life Planning 101: How to create and work with a budget
It’s not enough to have a destination in mind, you need a map to help you get from Point A to Point B. Your money works the very same way — and here’s the secret for reaching your financial and life goals. [Read more…]
Minimalist’s Guide to Retirement: Working with a budget
Money may not solve all the world’s problems – but it sure can help you have more control over your life and the things you need to live it well. So when you’re thinking about your future, how can you plan to have more money (read: more control) when you are ready to retire? [Read more…]
Credit Cards: Your Anti-Diet for the Holidays
We know that most diets don’t work in the long run. So why are we trying to apply the failing dieting model to our credit cards and spending during the holidays? [Read more…]
The CPA’s Quickstart Guide for Your Post-Divorce Budget
Working with a post-divorce budget seems like a clumsy, uncomfortable idea — especially when you may have never done one before. But it’s incredibly easy to get started — and here’s how.
In today’s episode of Your Money Minute with Tracy Stewart, CPA, I want to share some helpful advice for getting started with your post-divorce budget. A budget seems so scary because it makes us get very, very honest about the money we spend. But working with a budget can be incredibly freeing, and you’ll find you have greater confidence about your finances and that you are able to stow away more money into savings.
So, I’ve already talked about how to capture your expenses for a month to get a good baseline for your budget. I want you to think about necessary and optional expenses you might need to account for when building your budget. A necessary expense would be your rent or mortgage, utilities and food. These expenses could fluctuate in cost, but they’re not going to go away entirely. On the other side of things, you will have optional expenses that can easily be reduced to help offset the outflow in your budget. Do you have to go to the theater every other weekend? Probably not.
Your inflow is going to be what money you bring in each month. This may come in the form of support from your divorce, a salary from work or any other situation where you’re getting money. Remember that your budget should reflect what you actually “take home”, not your pre-taxed amount.
The goal here is to make sure your inflow is greater than your outflow. It’s going to feel like a balancing act at first, but once you wrangle the numbers, you should get to a point where you have a little extra money at the end of your month that you can put into savings.
Financial independence is unbelievably liberating. Mastering your finances will give you total control and complete peace about your future — and that’s the kind of security and stability that will carry you through the rest of your life.
Remember: Subscribe to my YouTube channel to get even more advice on making the most of your money and life. I post a new episode of Your Money Minute every weekday, and I want you to be the first to see them when they’re live.