Planning – Do you know how much of your income is disposable?

Disposable Income is defined as: “income that remains available for spending after deductions for taxes and other obligations.” So the question remains, do you know the actual amount of your annual disposable income? If you don’t, then do you belong to the class of people who consider themselves “fixed for life”, if there is such a class? I say that because we have seen a lot of “well off” people who have had great wealth loose it overnight; the reality is that in most cases it was being siphoned off gradually over time. They say the loss came because of a misplaced trust in people who guided them or handled their resources. So given that example, we must realize that we are ultimately responsible for our financial situation.

It has been said that “with knowledge comes power” and in this case you need to gain a complete understanding of where your resources are going. Every family will have varying amounts of disposable income, but that amount is normally relative to that family’s lifestyle. Again, it doesn’t matter how much you make or have, it can all disappear overnight. Disposable income if not watched, or allocated, is like having a hole in your pocket, like a black hole, it just diminishes until it is gone. Worst yet, unallocated income represents a missed opportunity; it could have been applied to achieving goals. Goals might include: retirement, accelerated bill pay-off plans, and savings. Regarding savings, you might consider savings that are targeted for specific things. Again, be specific. Power comes, when with discipline, you take control of your finances and apply them in a way that will meet your needs and goals.

Some of you might be saying, sure I believe I can see my disposable income; I might even be able to allocate it, but reports don’t ensure I am on track, or warn me if I am about to jeopardize a goal. And since I don’t frequently review the reports, I am off track before I know it. Well, Living Budget Pro^® was designed from the ground up with planning in mind. For $59.99 the cost of a pair of pants, it will reveal your disposable income. Beyond that, it contains a tool that will locate your disposable income by income period and present it to you on a single form. The tool provides you with a method of allocating all, or a portion of those funds to one, or many existing or new expense sources. That means that you will be able to visually see how you are applying those funds to meet your goals. Once you have finished, the form will update your living budget with those changes.

Living Budget Pro actually creates and manages living budgets. Basically, a Living Budget is a method of displaying your finances in a contextual, editable format where you can easily see the potential of earnings. Living Budget Pro creates up to a year’s worth of transactions based on your income and debt sources. Future transactions are placeholders and the program uses them to display your financial potential and keep goals in sight. Living Budget Pro incorporates a fully functional check register which is used to keep your living budget up to date. As you enter check register entries, you will immediately see if that transaction has placed a goal in jeopardy. The program also provides a means for you to create many what-if scenarios and tailor a spending plan that meets your needs.

Please note that it is incumbent upon us to take a more disciplined approach to the management of our finances; Living Budget Pro can help. Please consider purchasing Living Budget Pro today.

Budgets – Untapped Cash

As economic times continue to place great demands upon our wallets, we must use all the tools at our disposal to ensure we are managing our resources wisely. Even though gas prices are starting to lower, we must watch and monitor our spending. Within every household there is an untapped (hidden) cash flow that disappears in small amounts throughout the year. Left unchecked that untapped cash flow can add up to a significant amount.

Living Budget Pro will immediately uncover your untapped cash and reveal your financial potential. For $59.99 you will not only discover that untapped cash potential, but you will be able to apply all or a portion of that amount to one or many bills; you can even spread the amount across the entire year. Additionally, since Living Budget Pro creates up to a year’s worth of transactions based on your income and debt sources, and since it is easy to create, edit, and delete transactions, you will be able to create many what-if scenarios and develop a spending plan that meets your needs.

Consider purchasing Living Budget Pro today. For less than a tank of gas you could gain additional incite and control over your finances.

Planning – Is your wallet being affected by the Economy?

As gasoline and fuel oil costs continue to hover far above reasonable norms, food and other consumer goods also remain high. Given these factors we must all continue to be prudent managers of our resources. It is extremely important that you have a clear view of your present and future cash flow. Wisdom dictates being prepared for financial emergencies.

The reality is that we should develop and manage a spending plan that will ensure we have the necessary surplus to survive unexpected expenditures, and negative economic adjustments. Spending and budgeting plans don’t necessarily provide the visibility and maintainability required to encourage consistency and follow-though of the plan. Although plans laid out on paper might have visibility, they are not easily updated with the changes of everyday life. Spreadsheets can provide visibility, and are easier to update than paper, but require a greater level of skill to create and update. Linking a year’s worth of data can become complex and will require a new spreadsheet at the end of the year.

Living Budget Pro^® was designed from the ground up with planning, visibility, and maintenance as design goals. Living Budget Pro creates and manages living budgets^®. Basically, a Living Budget is a method of displaying your finances in a contextual, editable format where you can easily see the potential of earnings.

Regarding visibility, Living Budget Pro creates a calendar year’s worth of transactions for each payee (income or debt source) based on their individual pay frequency and due date. Each month is displayed on a separate tab with income and debt sources separated and cleanly displayed with payments automatically inserted into their proper pay-periods.

Your ability to edit, delete, or insert transactions, as well as create and delete payees, provides you with a means of creating many what-if scenarios. And yes, you will immediately see the results of those changes. Use that information to tailor and get the most out of your living budget. Many people will immediately realize their financial potential once the budget is created as they look at December’s ending balance.

Regarding maintenance, Living Budget Pro automatically created up to a year’s worth of transactions for each payee. All future transactions are considered placeholders providing a base for the budget. The built-in check register has the ability to automatically update the workspace with actual expenditures. Placeholder names and amounts are replaced with the actual name and amount entered in the check register. Updating and replacing placeholders immediately exposes the impact of that expenditure against the entire budget. At the end of the year, Living Budget Pro provides a means for you to transfer open items into a new budget for the following year.

When people have a clear view of their financial potential, they can more easily conceive attainable dreams. With tools that provide the proper visibility, goals can be set and a plan developed. When plans expose the attainability of goals and dreams, follow-through with the plan has a greater chance of success.

Consider purchasing Living Budget Pro today!

Planning - Where did the money go?

I am sure many of you have been in a situation where you needed to make a purchase and realized that you did not have enough money. There were probably other times where you looked up and made the statement “where did the money go?” expecting to have more available cash than what was in your pocket or checkbook.

Unfortunately running out, or running low on available cash, happens to more of the population than you might expect, you are not alone. Getting out of living day-to day, week-to-week, or month-to-month will take a little effort on your part. First and foremost you must decide to change your current financial situation. Secondarily, you must develop the discipline needed to follow-though with a financial plan. Following-though with the plan might mean temporally giving up some non-essentials, which individually might not be much, but collectively and in total could add up to significant savings.

It is extremely important that you develop a plan, and in order to develop the plan you must first have a complete understanding of your current financial picture. Purchase a personal financial application that can place your current financial situation in a form where it is more easily seen and manageable. Unfortunately, visibility alone is not enough; the application must be able to present your finances in a manner that displays your financial potential. Displaying your financial potential will open the doors to achieving your goals.

Living Budget Pro is a personal financial planning and management tool that can answer, meet, and exceed your financial management and reporting requirements and can help you achieve your goals and improve your financial position. Consider purchasing Living Budget Pro today!

Planning - Do you want to purchase a house? Does your credit stink?

Are you one of the many thousands of families that are looking to purchase a home? Are you having problems qualifying because your credit scores are too low? As you have probably noticed, low and poor credit costs you dearly. Generally, low or poor credit means if you qualify, you will be paying more interest on loans. This is actually costing you significantly over the life of your loan.

The goal here is to improve your credit, and that can be accomplished by first and foremost paying your bills early or on-time. Secondarily, if you are carrying substantial debt in the form of high balances on credit cards, you will need to implement a strategy for paying them down as well. You might be saying, “How am I going to pay all these bills since I am already against the wall”? Please know there are always alternatives and ways to get out of your current situation. You should know that a lack of knowledge is all that stands between you and success. In today’s world it is easy to find the information you need to overcome your current situation.

Again, first and foremost, you must start paying your bills early or on-time. If you are having problems in this area, then I would suggest that you purchase an advance planning and budgeting software tool. The software should allow you to easily input in all your income and debt sources, which when complete will show you the current state of your financial affairs. The software should also show you where you are short and don’t have enough to pay a debt.

After reviewing the results and determining that you truly don’t have enough to pay the debts, you need to determine what you can pay. In determining what you can pay you must determine how much money you need to live on and or otherwise maintain your household. Be very realistic and careful as you determine these needs. A good financial planning software package will provide the tools for you to document your need and see the actual impact of those needs against the total budget. Additionally, the software should provide a means for you to determine how much you can actually pay each one of your creditors.

Armed with knowing how much you can actually pay each creditor, call them up and discuss lowering your payments. Most creditors would rather discuss payment structures rather than see the account lapse and move into collections. You should know that creditors loose money by having to sell accounts to collectors which pay far less than the amount of the loan. And by the way, don’t say within yourself, “I can’t do that”; determine within yourself that you can do it, and place the calls today.

If you found after using the financial planning and budgeting tool that you can pay your bills early and on-time, determine your actual household needs as previously discussed. Work with the software to determine the excess spendable income which became apparent when you scaled down you actual household needs. Next consider applying the excess spendable income to your high interest credit cards and pay each one down.

Finally, be patient. It took a while for you to get into your current financial situation and it might take some time to repair it and become financially stable. Goals have a tendency to keep us focused and on-track, use the prospect of that new house or car as a goal to stay the course and spend within your means according to your budget.

Living Budget Pro from CLB Systems LLC is more than a budgeting program, financial planner, or personal finance application. Whether you have good credit, bad credit, need financial advice, money saving tips, or you just want to maximize your cash flow, Living Budget Pro can help. Besides revealing your financial potential, Living Budget Pro’s visual approach and methods will help you develop good financial habits. Living Budget Pro easily accomplishes all the tasks described in this blog plus more. Consider purchasing Living Budget Pro today!

General - My spouse spent all the money, now what?

Are you running into a situation where every time you go to pay your bills you find that the money has been spent? Is your spouse spending without regard for, or without consideration of the ongoing monthly expenses? Well unfortunately, this is an all too common scenario in most households.

As with most problems your goal should be to discover the root cause of the problem. Getting to that root cause however, requires that you expose the problem. You might be thinking “I have already told him or her about the problem”, and you might recall the times where you have presented the list of extra charges and late fees which were a direct result of the overspending. Well, let’s consider a different approach to providing visibility to the situation.

Most of the time it is not enough to just provide visibility to your financial situation, you will need to provide incentive in order to get a positive response to the picture being presented. This incentive should be in the form of dreams and goals. Your mission then is to start by providing a clear picture of your current finances. Once the current picture is presented, begin presenting a picture that represents the path to reaching those goals. Again, most people will find incentive to stay the course when they can clearly see a path to success.

The approach we have presented should work for people who have problems keeping focused, and truly desire to reach their goals. Unfortunately, this approach might not work for individuals who have deeper issues, but following this plan couldn’t hurt, and would at least provide you with more knowledge of your financial position.

If you are looking for a tool that can clearly provide the types of visibility described in this blog, consider purchasing Living Budget Pro. Living Budget Pro was designed to help people achieve their goals and improve their financial position.

Parents - Are you helping your teens to become financially responsible?

Let’s face it, most of us just encourage our youth to get jobs expecting that a job alone will give them a greater respect for money. Well a respect for money is not the same as knowing how to keep and manage it. Lots of teens and young adults get checking accounts as part of having that new job. And even though they may be able to balance the checkbook, they still can have difficulties managing the finances.

As with the majority of households we tend to hide our financial dealings from our kids in an effort to shield them from life, which is okay. We must however endeavor to show them how to manage their finances. We can and should let them know that this is the method that we use to manage our finances. If you had problems managing your finances and have now discovered how to manage them, let you kids know that they can start doing it right.

Managing your finances equates to balancing your income and expenses, while making provision for emergencies and goals. It is essential that you explain and possibly show by example in your life, the reasons for making provision for emergencies and goals. Far too often young people start life wanting to immediately to achieve what their parents have not recognizing that it took their parents a good amount of time to achieve their goals. Additionally, youth need to be taught to live their lives without regard for the “Joneses”. Their friends, the Joneses, live their lives based on their principles, means, and opportunities, which may not exist for your child.

Lastly, consider purchasing a simple to use financial planning program that makes managing the plan simple. Consider giving your kids this gift with their very first checkbook. Living Budget Pro was designed to make managing your finances easy. Purchase Living Budget Pro today and give your kids a better shot at a great life!