I know what you're thinking. "Why are we talking about finances on a spiritual literature and teachings site?" It's for this reason: If one has a true desire to discover their life's purpose, it will be much more easily accomplished without stress of debt and worry of money. I've given it its own page because I feel it is so important. Many of us are currently swimming in debt, living paycheck to paycheck, and wondering how on earth we would have time for self-discovery when we barely have the means to survive. I get it. So, allow me to suggest a few tips on writing a budget in order to take back some control in your life.

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For our purposes, I'm going to move forward with the assumption that you have never written a budget in your life, and that you are more or less experiencing the situation I've described above. The goal of a budget is to become financially in control enough to create wealth and entirely eliminate debt. I will be sharing principles from the teachings of Dave Ramsey, a prominent figure in the finance world. His teachings have blessed my life greatly and I hope they can do the same for you. If you want to get more in-depth, check out his book The Total Money Makeover.

 

The first and most important things we need to worry about on our list of items to budget are food (I'm not talking about restaurant money here, only the food necessary to survive), shelter (are we current on our rent/mortgage? Utilities?), and transportation (do we have gas in the car and our payment up-to-date?) in that order. Once we feel secure in those, we can move on to the next step. If you don't have enough to cover these, which are the basic necessities of life, it's time to find a higher paying job or another source of income.

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Next, we need to look at all of our bills and debts. Are we current on every payment? If not, pay the minimum on every payment to become current. Again, if this seems impossible based on your income, it's time for a change of job/income.

 

After we've become current on ALL payments, we have to throw every spare dollar we have into creating a $1,000 emergency fund. According to Dave Ramsey, the average individual should be able to accomplish this within 30 days. My wife and I were able to do this within about 2 weeks by selling unused items and saving what we could.

 

After we've accomplished this, we stop all saving and learn to throw every spare dollar we have at our debts, starting from our smallest debt and working up to our largest. This is called the "Debt Snowball" by Dave and his team. Many people are tempted to continue saving to build up their emergency fund even more at this point, but it is essential that you knock out your debt before doing so. It is said that debt is the number one inhibitor to wealth building. If we are continually having to put our money into paying off our debts, we'll never truly have the excess we need to invest in our future.

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The debts in your "Debt Snowball" should contain ALL debts. That includes that time you borrowed ten bucks from your friend. This process should scare and also excite you, because for (likely) the first time you will see your debt as it is. But also, you will have a plan to knock it out, and you will have the little celebrations of getting rid of them along the way.

 

So, there you have it. This is a fairly bare-bones rundown of a budget, but it should be enough to get you started on the right path. This will give you the tools you need to break the paycheck to paycheck cycle. Thanks for reading, and as always, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me! Until next time.