Let's face it, when it comes to personal finance, most of us hate budgeting. We are not talking about regular budgeting for mortgage payments, car payments, utility bills, etc, but the budgeting of personal, variable income, like the money we spend on groceries and entertainment, for instance.
You may have tried every spreadsheet there is for tracking variable income and they all have you feeling like you've wasted your time and shot your nerves. You may then discover that the less you stress about the tiny details, the more open you are to increasing your income, saving more money and nailing your financial goals. With that being said, here is a non-traditional suggestion for budgeting variable income.
Use Ballpark Figures
Just because you find that stressing over how much money you spent on groceries is not beneficial to your finances (or your sanity) doesn’t mean you need to be oblivious of how much money you're spending.
You know how much you're roughly spending on food and entertainment each month. The number may not be exact each month but you have a rough estimate that helps you plan.
Take Your Savings off the Top
The next step in the non-traditional way of budgeting personal, variable income is to take your savings off the top.
Once your regular bills, like mortgage and car payments, are paid, before you allot any money for food and entertainment, pay yourself first.
Because you've taken care of your savings first you simplify the process and don’t feel any guilt associated with spending some of your money.
Stop Stressing So Much.
Something strange happens when you give up the stress of trying to budget variable income. When you trust yourself and the processes of life, you will actually find you have a better attention span and time and as a result you make more money.
This will not be a coincidence. As soon as you stop focusing on minute details and worrying about not having enough, your mind is able to better focus on how to make more money. Sometimes it really is easier to make more money than it is to nickel and dime every little detail of your financial life.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, we need to have a balance of managing money and enjoying money. If you find that more traditional forms of budgeting variable income are causing too much stress and self-sabotage, start to focus on feeling better first. Once you do that, your mind will clear and learning how to handle variable income becomes a piece of cake.
Add comment