What is a budget?

I find that a lot of people live from paycheck to paycheck every week, then I come across others that run out of money before their next paycheck comes in. When this happens they have to charge items to their credit card in order to carry them to the next paycheck. I find that most of these people don't have any sort of budget they live by and this is the reason why they are run out of money by midweek. Using your charge cards to make ends meet is a very dangerous way to live. If you keep doing this week in and week out your only going to cause your debt to increase and eventually you will have more debt than you can pay back. This is why you need a budget to live by.

When I ask people if they have a budget they seem to get scared and want to change the subject. Most people don't even know what a budget is. So we come to the question, What is a budget? 

A budget is nothing more than a written down plan of how you are going to use your money this week, or month. A budget helps to make sure that you are going to have enough money to pay for all your needs and bills and not run out of money before your next paycheck. A budget is simply a financial road map to personal success.

There are some really good software programs out on the market that will help you set up your own personal budget. One of my favorite web based programs is called Mint.com, you cannot beat this program since it is totally free. Mint.com offers some really nice financial tools to help you get on your way to setting up your budget.

We will take a look in our future post of how to set up a successful budget.

Mint.com Financial Tool

Mint Personal Financial Tool

Many of you have probably never heard of MINT.com, this simple to use software program is a great web based financial tool that is totally free to the user and it only takes minuets to add your personal accounts to the program.

This program is mostly about helping you budget and track your expenses. Every time you use one of your accounts the software program will sync your transactions and then send them to a category that you and the system setup. This will help you find out where your money is going from week to week, it is an eye opener to see what your spending habits are. This will assist you with your budgets and make sure your spending habits are managed.

Since this web based program is free one thing that you cannot control on the site is the advertising. Mint does target advertising, so some of the ads on the site may be beneficial to you.

A lot of people have asked me about the security of the site especially today with all the online hacking that is taking place. Mint.com uses a bank-grade security software. According to the NY Times article all passwords and usernames are protected with the same level of security as a financial institution.

One of the newest features of Mint.com has recently rolled out is a free credit score tracking option. With just a click of the mouse you can view your credit score, payment history, age of your credit accounts, and your spending habits.

I truly believe this to be another great free tool for people needing help with their credit and or budgeting.