Do You Have a Budget?
A budget serves as a road map for your spending,
helping you find ways to save more money for your financial goals.
Inefficient and wasted expenditures can be major impediments to
accomplishing your financial goals. For a one-month period, keep
track of every dollar you spend, whether by cash, check, or credit
card. Are you surprised by how much small expenditures add up
over a month?
To make sure you get the maximum benefit
from the budgeting process, keep these points in mind:
- Use spending categories that make sense
for your spending patterns. If there are areas with good potential
for spending reductions, even if the amounts are relatively small,
set them up in their own categories.
- Set up enough categories to give you a
good feel for your spending patterns, but not so many that it
becomes difficult and time consuming to monitor your progress.
- Include non-recurring items in your budget,
such as gifts, tuition, insurance premiums, property taxes, etc.
- Periodically compare your actual expenditures
to your budgeted expenditures to find out where you are having
problems.
- While everyone in the family should have
some cash that can be spent without accounting for it, don't
make the amount so large that it detracts from your savings efforts.
- Include savings in your budget and make
sure you actually save that amount every month.
- While at times a budget may not seem worth
the effort, remember that it is a tool to help you accomplish
your financial goals. Remain committed and stick with it.
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About David K. Sebastian
David K. Sebastian, CFP®, and his team of experts at The Physicians Wealth Management Group specialize in working with individual physicians and group medical practices. David is considered to be one of the top financial advisors in the country with more than twenty five years of Wall Street experience as a chief investment officer, portfolio manager, institutional bond trader, and estate planning, benefits planning and retirement consultant.
Commitment to his clients’ financial needs and well being is a primary motivation for David.
The Physicians Wealth Management Group was specifically created to address and manage all of the unique financial challenges that doctors are facing both individually and through their group medical practices.
Feel free to contact me at www.physicianswealth.com or dsebastian@sfr1.com or call me at (973) 285-3600
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