This is a pretty stupid question it seems but I also just can not get to click for some reason.
I've set up a budget based on percentages that I found doing research, for example 10% savings and not allowing the essential finances to total 65%. The essential finances include home, transportation, and food if I'm not mistaken.
After I allocated everything obviously having some catagories of my budget a few percentages higher or lower than the researched benchmarks I have about 1-3% of my monthly income unaccounted for.
The concept I can't get over is basically having every dollar of my monthly income mapped out to the point of having 0% income left. Should I just leave that 1-3% out there for a cushion or account for it throughout my budget? To me it doesn't seem like a bad idea to have 100% of your income mapped out because that's the point of a budget but for some reason it's bothering me. Any input would be appreciated. If this doesn't make sense, I'll attempt to further clarify. Excuse some typos this was posted from my cell.

3 ...

Report Post

Posted by foshizzle

Washington DC metro

Member since Mar 2008

40599 posts

Posted on 4/20/14 at 8:32 am to JAE20

Honestly I wouldn't worry about it. The actuals won't track the plan that closely anyway.

0 ...

Report Post

Posted by Lsut81

Member since Jun 2005

80107 posts

Posted on 4/20/14 at 8:42 am to JAE20

Gonna be tough to track everything down to an exact %

What are your categories?

Do you have an emergency fund with 6-12 months of living expenses in it?

1 ...

Report Post

Posted by JAE20

In the cloudz

Member since Jul 2009

7176 posts

Posted on 4/20/14 at 9:16 am to Lsut81

Off the top of my head I have :
Savings
Living
Misc(light bill, etc, and entertainment)
Transportation
Food
Medical
Debt

Fwiw I'm 23, and graduating in May.

1 ...

Report Post

Posted by Teddy Ruxpin

Member since Oct 2006

39557 posts

Posted on 4/20/14 at 9:25 am to JAE20

I sort of accounted for it by just making a slush account tracking goal. As others have said, you're not going to be 100% accurate, since you'll have monthly fluctuations and life events. This works for me so if I come in under a few bucks are saved and if I'm over the next month, it will come from this account. I've made a mental note that if this account reaches say a $1,000, any overage will move to long term savings/investments and on we go.

0 ...

Report Post

Posted by Lsut81

Member since Jun 2005

80107 posts

Posted on 4/20/14 at 9:27 am to JAE20

quote:
Savings
Living
Misc(light bill, etc, and entertainment)
Transportation
Food
Medical
Debt

Way too many categories IMO. Consolidate it. You don't have to be exact as you can always shift around funds.

Here is how my budget analysis was when I considered taking on a new job and was weighing the difference in salaries

Mandatory = Everything that HAS to be paid monthly. (Mortgage, insurance, gas, car not, cell phone, utilities, etc...)
Retirement = 401k, IRA, Funds
Savings = Combo of money for future big purchase and emergency fund (Do not put money for retirement here as it won't earn shite, roll it into your 401k/IRA/Mutual Funds)
Play Money = Money for shopping and dining out that isn't included in my "mandatory" category.

I think my %s were 40%, 30%, 20%, 10%...

Any extra money that is left over, I end up moving into Retirement Accounts.

Hope that helps... You will likely take combination of multiple peoples plans and make your own.

Page 1