Posts

Debt

Debt is the key factor that will affect your personal finance income growth. Taking on debt at correct moment in life is healthy and necessary. However it could get out of control. As student debt keeps hitting historical high, average student loans is reaching 37,000 per student. 2/3 of Americans graduate with some sort of student loan. Reference: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/student-loan-debt-crisis/ How to pay off loans. Please refer to my previous monthly budget blog to track your spending Limit big purchases Pay off debt from highest to lowest interest accordingly Clearing debt might require certain life style changes, however we need to get to debt free before we can begin any investment goals.

First Step: Monthly Budgeting

How to budget monthly expenses. For me, the best way is to use a basic spreadsheet. It's simple and effective. Here is a template: Daily Budget Template - Google SpreadSheet Notes: Log your expenses every night when you come home It's not easy to keep doing it every day. You will probably need 1-2 months to get used to this mundane exercise The goal of tracking manually is to help yourself to revisit what you have purchased Once you become aware of what you are spending or wasting money on, then it will become easier to tackle and control unnecessary expenses Feel free to use various mobile apps like Mint to track your expenses. I recommend using a manual spreadsheet, but an App is better than without any monitoring tools.

Getting Started

Starting a new personal finance blog. It will be based off from my own personal experiences. I will publish a few posts. Hopefully they will help people to use money more efficiently.