I Wasn't Paying Attention: Where Does My Money
Go and How Can I Get Some Back? - Part 1
by: Janet L. Hall

Tracking, planning, and * overhalling * your hard earned
money can help you reach any financial goals that you have,
help you in getting out of debt, and help you gain back
control of your money, your future, and your life.

Dawn Rivers Baker of WAHM & Mompreneur has a great
series, * Financial Management 101 * ( http://www.wahm-
mompreneur.com/finmanage.html ) in which she writes,
* Managing cash flow is the simple matter of projecting cash
receipts and needed cash outlays within a certain period of
time - a week, a month, a quarter, a year - ... Good cash
management consists very basically of three things: knowing
when you need money, knowing where that money is going
to come from and knowing where you can get money from if
you fall short. With good cash management, you may find
yourself with a bit of money left over when you have paid
your bills. *

To assist you, in this often overlooked area of one’s life, I
have found several generic cash flow/budget worksheets on
the Internet, one in which you can enter your figures and it
will calculate everything for you. I have listed those links at
the end of this article, but please keep reading before
bouncing over to them! Just remember that these
worksheets are generic and it is up to you to customize them
to your lifestyle and habits.

Listed below are the percentages (based on net spendable
income, after tithing and taxes), according to Larry Burkett
(http://www.cfcministry.org ), that you should ONLY be
spending in each category of your budget:

Housing - 38%
Food - 12%
Automobile(s) - 15%
Insurance - 5%
Debts - 5%
Entertainment & Recreation - 5%
Clothing - 5%
Savings - 5%
Medical Expenses - 5%
Miscellaneous - 5%
To meet the 8% that you should allocate for school/child
care, if needed, you will have to make adjustments of the
above categories by an equal amount.

To have a true sense of where you're spending your money
daily, keep a daily expense log for at least one month. Enter
in everything that you purchase DAILY! Even that .25 cent
pack of gum or mints. Get a little notebook that you keep
with you and just do IT! This will allow you to see where you
can cut back and/or start saving.

For instance, if you buy a newspaper everyday at .50 cents a
pop, and a $1 for the Sunday paper, you've just spent $208
for a year of reading what? DO you read the whole paper or
just the home or sports section?

If you read the paper at home, does it start to pile up causing
more clutter and more of your time to dispose of it?

Where else can you get this SAME information? Maybe on
the Internet (if you're reading this, you are probably already
paying for Internet service). At the library? Can you read
your co-workers? Do you also watch the television news?

How important is it for you to read the newspaper everyday
and see $208 go out of YOUR pocket every year?

How much * bad * news do you really want to read and listen
to everyday? Be selective! Remember how much your time
is worth!

This and your other daily habits are what I want you to take a
STRONG look at and see what you can * OverHall and
Balance *, see what you are willing to give up, what you
don't really need, or what costly habit you can change or cut
back.

As Deborah Fowles, financial writer of about.com, stated in
her article * Financial Planning *:
* To those of you who think you know where your money
goes without keeping detailed records, I issue this challenge:
keep track of every cent you spend for one month. I promise
you'll be surprised and perhaps shocked by how much some
of your "small" expenditures add up to. For an eye-opening
illustration, try the American Express * Savings or Spending
Big Calculator at
http://www6.americanexpress.com/401k/scripts/saveBig.asp
Enter the cost and frequency of a habit or indulgence and
how many years you expect it to continue. Click a button and
see not only how much you'll spend over the specified time
period, but also how much that same amount would grow to
if you invested it at various rates of return. Mind-boggling! *

You might think all of this is too much work, am I right? Well
let me ask you, how much work will it be or take when you
are retired and have no savings, no investments, no assets,
no money, no NOTHING because you didn't control your
cash flow?

If you're already retired, how hard might you be struggling
because you aren't paying attention to your money?

As Dr. Lair Ribeiro, author of * Success Is No ACCIDENT *
wrote, * If you go on doing what you've always done, you'll
go on getting what you've always got. *

STOP procrastinating! Get your priorities in line! Get
focused! OverHall your cash flow so you can stop worrying
about money, stop living from pay check to pay check, stop
being late on your bills. Work on balancing your cash flow
so you won't have problems or troubles NOW or in your later
years.

TIP: The best time to work on this is when you are paying
your bills.

Business Owners-The Small Buisness Development Center
in your neighborhood will be happy to help you for FREE
with your business cash flow!

Websites of interest:

~~ Basic Budget Worksheet at
http://financialplan.about.com/finance/financialplan/
library/blbudget.htm

~~ Budget Worksheet
http://www.moneyminded.com/incomego/start/a7budw15.ht
m

~~ List of Small Business Development Centers
http://www.nttc.edu/assist/sbdc.html

~~ Cash Flow Worksheet
http://www.e-analytics.com/fpa2.htm

~~ Managing your Business Cash Flow Worksheet
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/lifestyles ext/
p06_0100.htm

~~ FREE Exl-Plan Business Shareware to prepare
comprehensive financial projecitons, budgets, and
business plans
http://www.planware.org/exldown.htm

Smiles, not Piles,
Janet L. Hall

The Organizing Wizard, Janet L. Hall, is a Professional
Organizer, Speaker, and Author. She is the owner of
OverHall Consulting, and Organizing By Phone. Subscribe to
her FREE organizing newsletter at
http://www.overhall.com/newsletter.htm or visit
her web site at http://www.overhall.com

Copyright ( C ) 1999, 2000, 2001 by OverHall Consulting
P.O. Box 263, Port Republic, MD 20676
All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce,
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information about contacting the author is attached.

About the Author

The Organizing Wizard, Janet L. Hall, is a Professional
Organizer, Speaker, and Author. She is the owner of
OverHall Consulting, and Organizing By Phone. Subscribe to
her FREE organizing newsletter at
http://www.overhall.com/newsletter.htm or visit
her web site at http://www.overhall.com