Your Money Pie Budget

Adjust the percentages below to determine how you might use your income

AMOUNTS FOR EACH SPENDING CATEGORY AND WHAT TO DO WITH THEM

GIVE AMOUNT: ${give}

This represents the amount of your income you might consider giving away. Possibilities include donations to the charity of your choice, tithes for a church, or helping a friend or neighbor going through a financially challing time (widowed, injured, unemployed, recently divorced, new parent, etc.). Whether you give anonymously, as yourself or in the name of someone else is up to you.

Generosity tends to keep us grounded in reality when it comes to differentiating between needs and wants. This, in turn, usually leads us to be better managers of our remaining funds than if we had not given anything to begin with.

We recommend you use a checking account or cash for these funds.

LIVE AMOUNT: ${live25}

This represents the amount of your income you might consider living on. Living expenses include housing and utilities, groceries (not dining out), necessary clothing, transportation expenses (car payment, gasoline, insurance) and communications (cell phone, Internet).

Allowing your LIVING expenses to take up 100% of your income is the main cause of the paycheck-to-paycheck syndrom as well as growing credit card and other consumer debts.

We recommend you deposit these funds into a checking account from which you pay your regular bills.

PREPARE AMOUNT: ${prepare26}

This represents the amount of your income you might consider saving for short-term goals and emegencies. This can include vacations and travel, gift and holiday giving, vehicle repairs and replacement and appliance and furniture replacement.

We recommend you keep these funds in separate savings accounts at a bank or credit union.

PLAN AMOUNT: ${prepare26}

This represents the amount of your income you might consider investing for the long-term. The most common purposes include retirement funds, down payments for a future home, and child education expenses.

We recommend you keep these funds in investment accounts that offer tax advantages. Examples include 401(k)/403(b) employer-based accounts, Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA - traditional or Roth), real estate, etc. See a Certified Financial Planner for more information and guidance.

IMPROVE AMOUNT: ${improve28}

This represents the amount of your income you might consider using using to increase your household earning potential. Usages might involve additional education, training or certification programs as well as starting or purchasing a business.

We recommend you keep these funds in high-earning savings, certificates of deposit, or bonds that will allow you to access them within a reasonable time period.

ENJOY AMOUNT: ${enjoy29}

This represents the amount of your income you might consider using using to enjoy living. Potential uses include dining out, entertainment and movies, impulsive purchases or splurges, and other opportunities for fun.

Being human, we tend to spend money on these purchases and experiences regardless of whether we budget for them, so having some fun money will avoid the likelihood of having to rob Peter to pay Paul by the end of the month.

We recommend you keep these funds in cash on hand or in a checking account separate from your bill paying checking. This decreases the possibility of accidentally spending bill paying money on fun.

Please contact me about a program (not a loan) to pay down my consumer debts FASTER, and at LOWER interest rates with my same creditors, and generally at LOWER monthly payments in 5 years or less. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit credit counseing agency, we have helped tens of thousands of consumers annually since our founding in 1996.