Federal Employees and Retirement Budgets
You don’t have to follow any particular format for creating a budget except to measure income against expenses. The tips below might help you get started.
- Determine a time horizon for tracking your income and expenses.
- Outline all of your sources of income and then total the sources.
- Outline all of your expenses, everything you spend money on. Break down your expenses into variable and fixed income so that you can really see where there is room to make adjustments if needed. Total all of your expenses. Remember “savings” are a fixed expense; therefore you must pay yourself first (PYF).
- Subtract your expenses from your income. If expenses outweigh income, you have some work to do in the ‘adjustments’ arena. If income outweighs expenses, then you should consider paying yourself a little more so that your financial goals might be achieved earlier than planned. Plans are made to be flexible and this is good flexibility.
- Now that you have the tools necessary to develop both a financial plan and a budget, take sometime to compare one to the other and see how they mesh and if any refurbishing needs to be done. Your spending plan should be in harmony with your financial goals. Do this often throughout your life.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
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