Everyone needs a personal budget.

It's the easiest way to see where your money is going in black and white.

But creating and keeping track of a personal budget the old pen and paper way can be hard.

There are many tools available to help you create a personal budget.  The easiest and best one I use and recommend for clients is You Need A Budget.

They have four core principles to help you with your personal budget:

• every dollar has a job
• save for a rainy day
• roll with the punches
• stop living from pay check to pay check.

Personal Budget Secret #1: Every Dollar Has a Job

You must start out with a budget for your money.  Assigning every dollar that you make a job allows you to use your money more wisely.  When you are living by your personal budget doesn't mean that you spend every dollar that you earn.  You save money to roll over to the next month to use in your personal budget.

Personal Budget Secret #2: Save For a Rainy Day

The next part of your personal budget is planning for a rainy day.  I refer to it as life happens fund.  There are expenses that pop up that are not included in your normal monthly expenses.  For example the hot water heater goes out or you have a tire blow out.  You know that things may happen but you just don't know when.  By putting money aside you can deal with these expenses in a much better way.  You won't create additional debt by using a credit card.  By planning for the rainy days it won't throw you off your personal budget.

Personal Budget Secret #3: Roll With the Punches

When you roll with the punches means that when you overspend on a category it is zeroed out at the start of the next month.  The over spending will come out of the buffer that you have been saving to start out each month of your personal budget.  To make up for the overspending you can deduct it from that particular category next month in your personal budget or you can budget less in another category.  It is all up to you how you pay yourself back.  Since the categories zero out each month and you get a fresh start each month.  So when you don't follow your personal budget to the penny one month you don't quit.  Just dust yourself off and start the next month on your personal budget.

Personal Budget Secret #4: Stop Living from Paycheck to Paycheck

When you are living from paycheck to paycheck life can be rough. You feel like you are living to just pay bills.   The idea behind stopping this concept is saving money from each of your paychecks until you have one month of your pay saved.  In doing so you can pay your bills at the beginning of the month.  As you get paid during the month that money is saved to spend on the next month. For example if your transmission goes out on your car.  You have a few weeks to decide how you are going to handle the problem.  It will take you some time to get to this point.  As you save money each month it continues to roll over until you have saved one months salary.  Once you get to this point you keep saving money in other ways.

Using a budget will help you build a healthy financial future.

Click Here to Download Your Personal Budget Software