Budgeting Tools

Once you've considered the issues of income budgeting and budgeting for expenses, you're ready to build your personal budget.

Although any type of personal budget plan that serves your purposes is fine, it's pretty safe to say that a workable plan will have all of these attributes:

• It is easy to use
• It is consistently applied
• It is updated as often as needed
• It is used as a personal financial decision-making tool

While some people find great comfort in creating their own budget on paper, we strongly suggest that an interactive electronic budget is easier, saves time, and provides more useful information than a budget done on paper. You can always print out the budget if you like to keep paper records.

The biggest advantage of an electronic budget is that it can provide "what if" projections, such as "can I double up on my credit card payment this month, without running into trouble next month?" Besides this, the electronic budget can save time by doing the math for you and saving repetitive monthly expense entries.

Planning Tools Use the Monthly Budget Worksheet to record or project your monthly personal income and expenses over a six-month period. The information you gather will permit you to assess the relationship between your income and your expenses.

A personal budget may be used as a stand-alone tool to help control your current finances. It may also be used as one of the components in a long-term effort to build your personal wealth.

Financial Calculators Use the Budgeting Calculator to find out where your money is going. Enter your income and expenses, and then click on the "view report" button to compare your budget breakdown to our targets. This will help you identify areas for improvement.

If you're creating the budget as part of an overall financial plan, the next step is to consider your current documents and arrangements that will affect your financial and estate plan.

Students. Full-time students face special issues. For example, there are additional income sources to consider, such as scholarships, fellowships, and grants. And, of course, there are the additional expenses that only students incur, such as tuition and course materials.

Financial Calculators Use this student budget calculator to help analyze your budget as a full-time student. This calculator is specifically designed to help students understand their expenses and income while attending a full-time educational institution. This calculator allows you to input your expenses and income for an eight-month school year running from September through April.