As we approach the mid-point of the year, now is a great time to make sure you are on track with your budget. David Sant with Cyprus Credit Union shared what you should look out for, as well as ways to fix the issues that you may be having.
CHECK GOAL PROGRESS
When first creating your budget, you should have come up with a list goals that you wanted to reach and then built your budget around those. If you keep going over your spending goal and aren`'t quite hitting your savings goals, look at the spending habits you`'ve developed. Are there places where you can cut back? Maybe you can allocate some more money towards your debt.
LEARN FROM PAST
The best way to not repeat past mistakes is to learn from them. By pinpointing the errors you`ve made when budgeting in the past, you can come up with a plan to fix them and prevent them from happening again in the future.
PREPARE FOR FUTURE
As you examine what you`'ve done for the past six months, you can start preparing for what the next six months have in store. Now is great time to start saving for the holidays so you can avoid depending on your credit card during those busy shopping months.
TRY A NEW METHOD
If you find yourself struggling with your budget, see if there is another method that works better for you. There are a lot of options out there, but some of the most popular are the zero based budget (every cent is accounted for each month, zero dollars are left at month end), the 50/20/30 rule (50% of net pay goes to essentials including rent/mortgage, groceries, bills), 20% to pay off debt or build savings, 30% are for extras like dining out, cable bills, gym membership) and the electronic budget (using budgeting apps to track money).
Find out more cypruscu.com.
