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!