budgeting basics

It's Savings Saturday! This is how I manage my money.

1) Use Mint (or some other budgeting tool)

2) Create "budgets" in the tool for all your standard bills and regular payments.

• Rent / mortgage
• Utilities
• Cable / internet / netflix
• Student loans
• Car payment
• Subscriptions

3) Create goals.

• Pay off debt 
• Save for a home
• Create an emergency savings fund
• Retirement

4) Set a budget for "everything else" for whatever is left. This is your spending money - for food, going out, travel, shopping, and anything else.

Tips & Tricks

• Consider consolidating any debt. I used SoFi to refinance my student loan debt at a much lower rate; I'm paying about half the interest I was before and will save about $7k.
• Prioritize your goals. Completing one will show you that YOU CAN DO THIS. For example, use all your savings to create your emergency fund first. Then increase your payments on your debt or other goals.
• If you have multiple loans, pay off the highest interest rate loan first. If you're having trouble making payments, talk to your lender, or consider paying off smaller debts first, to decrease monthly obligation on payments sooner.
• Use a loan calculator to calculate your payoff plan.
• Increase your 401(k) contribution if you can. At the very least, make sure you're contributing up to your employer's match to maximize on retirement savings

Happy savings!

-B