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RickAstley 
LSU Fan
Reno, Nevada
Member since May 2011
1295 posts
| 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/23/12 at 9:53 am)
I'm one year in to tracking and carefully planning my budget. I have overall broken away from winging it like I have the years prior. I have already worked on my 2013 spreadsheet and filling in the gaps that I am currently aware of.
As far as planning goes, what are some thing you guys start planning ahead for before the new year? Do you typically set a list of things you wish to maybe purchase or invest in? Or do you keep a simple running budget that you have from previous years that you wish to keep balanced? I am goal planning for next year to break away from falling into a mundane lifestyle that I have seen at times this past year.
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CoolHand 
USA Fan
Member since Dec 2011
1454 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/23/12 at 10:50 am to RickAstley)
quote:
I'm one year in to tracking and carefully planning my budget. I have overall broken away from winging it like I have the years prior. I have already worked on my 2013 spreadsheet and filling in the gaps that I am currently aware of
Sounds like what I did as far as spending some time to track what you actually spend to give some realism to your budget.
quote:
As far as planning goes, what are some thing you guys start planning ahead for before the new year? Do you typically set a list of things you wish to maybe purchase or invest in? Or do you keep a simple running budget that you have from previous years that you wish to keep balanced?
I keep a list of "unplanned" expenses and decide if I need to incorporate them as normal expenses accounted for in next year's budget. Otherwise, my emergency fund handles unplanned items. However, be truthful about the emergency fund. Don't use it for things that really should be part of your normal budget.
There are few new items that I have to account for each year. Most things are part of every year's budget, even if I don't use it for that year. For example, I have an "automotive" account that I deposit to every pay period. I know I'll have to repair or upgrade vehicles as time goes by. That's an expected expense. My "car payment" goes to this account.
As far as investments, mine are regular and boring. I suppose you could keep a cash account available for when you want to pull the trigger on something, but that's not my investment style.
quote:
I am goal planning for next year to break away from falling into a mundane lifestyle that I have seen at times this past year.
Always good to set goals. You are ahead of a majority of people. I read a lot of personal finance blogs and you can get a lot of good budgeting ideas from them.
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Crbello4Hiceman
LSU Fan
Lurking
Member since May 2011
374 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/23/12 at 10:53 am to RickAstley)
If you are serious about saving/investing, be disciplined. Look at what your expenses were this last year and estimate what may go up or down. This includes living/car/cell phone/electric/gas/food etc.
Not sure at the end of the day where you are- if your car will make it another year, if you are buying a house, kids etc.
If you add your specific items up and you aren't saving what you want, decide if it is worth it to cut things out to save/invest.
At the end of the day put good, honest #'s in the spreadsheet- don't round down. If you lie to the spreadsheet, you only hurt yourself.
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RickAstley
LSU Fan
Reno, Nevada
Member since May 2011
1295 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/23/12 at 11:14 am to CoolHand)
Thank you, can you refer me to some of the blogs that you read?
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OnTheBrink 
Alabama Fan
TN
Member since Mar 2012
1810 posts
 Online
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/23/12 at 11:18 am to RickAstley)
Not sure what CoolHand is going to recommend, but Get Rich Slowly is a pretty good blog... Below is a link to their "Planning" section...
LINK /
ETA: May be more basic than what you are looking for but a good resource nonetheless...
This post was edited on 10/23 at 11:19 am
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RickAstley
LSU Fan
Reno, Nevada
Member since May 2011
1295 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/23/12 at 11:21 am to Crbello4Hiceman)
I'm very early into my career. I have columns in my spread sheet for actual total and project total. I used that this year but I based my projected total mainly on a perfect scenario that didn't account for car repairs, etc.. Ultimately I feel good about where my budget is heading to end this year and where I will begin next year.
Simply put, my goal is to add further meaning into what I am budgeting for. Currently I am playing it conservatively and putting away as much money as I can to avoid spending it and giving myself the luxury of having it down the road.
I can't complain about what I have accomplished, but at the same time it is of interest to me to know what you guys have come across down the road that is likely to happen to anyone. So ultimately I can have some basic plan in place to cover some of these unforeseen scenarios at an early point in life.
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CoolHand
USA Fan
Member since Dec 2011
1454 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/23/12 at 11:32 am to OnTheBrink)
quote:
Not sure what CoolHand is going to recommend, but Get Rich Slowly is a pretty good blog... Below is a link to their "Planning" section...
Ha! That's actually one of them. Another would be Oblivious Investor.
By far my favorite is Len Penzo. It's well written and entertaining.
You can find many others through these blogs as well.
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Cholo 
Arkansas Fan
El Paso, Texas
Member since Oct 2012
976 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/23/12 at 5:38 pm to CoolHand)
Do you have payments on vehicles? On my long term budgeting I always plan on driving my current vehicle at least 8 years and even when paid off I usually budget in $2500 a year for repairs just in case.
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Dead Mike
LSU Fan
Cell Block 4
Member since Mar 2010
1501 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/23/12 at 6:50 pm to RickAstley)
quote:
As far as planning goes, what are some thing you guys start planning ahead for before the new year? Do you typically set a list of things you wish to maybe purchase or invest in? Or do you keep a simple running budget that you have from previous years that you wish to keep balanced? I am goal planning for next year to break away from falling into a mundane lifestyle that I have seen at times this past year.
I factor regular investment contributions into my budget and I have a category for incidentals (auto repair costs, indulging in fancy new shit, etc). I suppose I could set that category to roll over if I wanted to buy anything that would exceed my monthly budget, but meh.
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RickAstley
LSU Fan
Reno, Nevada
Member since May 2011
1295 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/23/12 at 8:42 pm to Cholo)
No my car is paid off. I actually did end up spending nearly $2000 on repairs this year, but my goal is to get 1-2 more years out of it. It was running like a champ before I started working. Naturally it has started to accumulate some wear and tear because I commute about 55 miles every day. I rarely drove it in college because I always lived within a mile of campus and would typically walk or ride a bike pending on the weather.
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CoolHand
USA Fan
Member since Dec 2011
1454 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/24/12 at 7:35 am to RickAstley)
quote:
Cholo
quote:
budget in $2500 a year for repairs just in case.
quote:
Astley
quote:
actually did end up spending nearly $2000 on repairs this year
Wow. I want to be your mechanic.
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RickAstley
LSU Fan
Reno, Nevada
Member since May 2011
1295 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/24/12 at 10:15 am to CoolHand)
Car repairs and new tires combined. I had to get new tires and realignment. Then one other case were repairs last December. So I did spend way more than I anticipated, I think I should be in the clear barring no car wrecks.
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weaglebeagle 
Auburn Fan
Alabama
Member since Jan 2011
1099 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/24/12 at 11:45 am to CoolHand)
Thank you for the Len Penzon suggestion. Lots of good stuff on there.
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hiltacular 
Georgia Tech Fan
ATL
Member since Jan 2011
5878 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/24/12 at 12:04 pm to RickAstley)
I am pretty early into my career (1yr graduated from college) but the things I focus on include:
-maximum Roth IRA contributions ($5K I think)
-maximum company 401K contributions (to the point that they match, around $5K)
Outside of those, I do no investing. I make a pretty good salary but with all of my current bills (car payment being at the top) and the $10K I put into retirement, there isn't a whole lot to budget for.
I also keep my checking account balance above $5K at all times to make sure I am okay for emergencies or whatever the situation may be.
I don't budget food,gas,etc. I am pretty good about understanding what I can and can't afford and how much I have to spend. Plus as long as I don't go below my $5k benchmark, I consider it okay.
As I receive salary increases, bonuses, etc I will begin to raise my contributions and checking acct balance.
ETA If you have loans, I would go after those first. I paid off my total loans ~$3k in 6 months.
This post was edited on 10/24 at 12:08 pm
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CoolHand
USA Fan
Member since Dec 2011
1454 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/24/12 at 12:06 pm to weaglebeagle)
quote:
weaglebeagle
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RickAstley
LSU Fan
Reno, Nevada
Member since May 2011
1295 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/24/12 at 4:55 pm to OnTheBrink)
quote:
Not sure what CoolHand is going to recommend, but Get Rich Slowly is a pretty good blog... Below is a link to their "Planning" section...
LINK /
This has been an informal link. Thanks for the post.
I'm gearing up to dividing my savings up into chunks this year such as:
Retirement - 401(K) & Roth IRA
Emergency fund - Savings
Undecided funds - Low risk investments such as CDs
I am not confident in investing until I have a firm understanding of finances. From what I have gathered, it would be a little more worth my time to drop a block of my savings into CDs while I continue to study on investing opportunities and strategies for going forward.
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jso0003
Auburn Fan
Birmingham/Atlanta
Member since Jun 2009
4456 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/24/12 at 6:39 pm to RickAstley)
Something to keep in mind for 2013... Potential 2% tax bump unless congress comes through in the 11th hour
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MOJO mod
LSU Fan
Haughton
Member since Nov 2010
203 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/24/12 at 7:57 pm to jso0003)
Really good points made in this thread. I started keeping a monthly budget/tracker for my expenses once I took over all financials from the wife. We didn't pay attention to what we were spending our money on and our debt was insane. Just by keeping up each month with what we spend vs what we bring in and concentrating on eliminating wasteful debt/expenses we were able to eliminate over 30k of debt.
I'd like to get better at setting a stricter budget where I am actually saving money beyond what I force into my/her 401k but right now living well with the process of tracking every dime we spend. I include all my "known" expenses and I also budget some "fudge" expenses. When I started doing this about 18 months ago we were spending almost 1:1 ratio known vs fudge...I know have that down to 6:1.
Let it be known that my wife did a shite job keeping our expenses and check book in balance. 
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CoolHand
USA Fan
Member since Dec 2011
1454 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/24/12 at 10:37 pm to RickAstley)
quote:
I am not confident in investing until I have a firm understanding of finances. From what I have gathered, it would be a little more worth my time to drop a block of my savings into CDs while I continue to study on investing opportunities and strategies for going forward.
Probably not a bad idea. However, I wouldn't stay out of the game too long. For those not clear on investment strategies but want to start, I recommend a target retirement fund (like what Vanguard offers).
If you have a matching 401k, do NOT wait. Fund up to the match. No need in turning down free money.
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CoolHand
USA Fan
Member since Dec 2011
1454 posts
| re: 2013 Personal Budget Planning (Posted on 10/24/12 at 10:39 pm to MOJO mod)
quote:
Let it be known that my wife did a shite job keeping our expenses and check book in balance.
Been there, done that. Not going back.
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