{"id":36810,"date":"2022-11-27T00:38:18","date_gmt":"2022-11-27T08:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financer.com\/?page_id=36810"},"modified":"2024-05-06T08:16:58","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T15:16:58","slug":"budget-calculator","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/financer.com\/calculator\/budget-calculator\/","title":{"rendered":"Budgeting Tool"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>How to Use the Budgeting Tool?<\/h3><div class=\"howto_desc\">The budgeting tool takes you through four steps where you will write down your\u00a0<strong>income, expenses, assets, and liabilities<\/strong>. The tool will then calculate your budget and the key metrics about your current situation.\nWe recommend spending 10-20 minutes when creating your first budget.\nYour answers are saved in the tool. You can always come back and edit your budget!<\/div><div class=\"single-article__steps\">        <style>\n            .single-article__steps-items .single-article__steps-content {\n                background: #FFFFFF;\n                padding: 30px;\n                margin: 0 0 30px 0;\n                border-radius: 10px;\n                box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14);\n                width: calc(100% - 5px);\n            }\n            .single-article__steps-items .single-article__steps-counter {\n                padding: 5px 20px;\n                border-radius: 3px;\n                background-color: #F5E7D8;\n                display: inline-block;\n                top: 15px;\n                left: -30px;\n                position: relative;\n                font-size: 16px;\n                font-weight: 600;\n            }\n\/*            .single-article__steps-items::before {\n                content: \"\";\n                position: absolute;\n                top: 20px;\n                left: 0;\n                height: calc(100% + 40px);\n                border-left: 2px dashed #e0e0e1;\n            }*\/\n            .single-article__conclusion-tag {\n                padding: 5px 20px;\n                border-radius: 3px;\n                color: #000000;\n                background-color: #F5E7D8;\n                display: inline-block;\n                top: 15px;\n                left: -30px;\n                position: relative;\n                font-size: 16px;\n                font-weight: 600;\n            }\n            .single-article__conclusion-item {\n                background: #FFFFFF;\n                padding: 30px;\n                margin: 0 0 30px 0;\n                border-radius: 10px;\n                box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14);\n            }\n        <\/style>\n        <div class=\"single-article__steps-items\"><div class=\"single-article__steps-counter\" id=\"step_1\">Step 1<\/div><div class=\"single-article__steps-content\"><h3 id=\"Preparation\">Preparation<\/h3>Creating your first budget takes 10-20 minutes, but you might need more time if you are not very familiar with your numbers.\nBefore you start, remove distractions and allow proper time to focus on creating your budget.\nIt will also help if you get all your papers nearby before you start.<\/div><div class=\"single-article__steps-counter\" id=\"step_2\">Step 2<\/div><div class=\"single-article__steps-content\"><h3 id=\"Enter-Your-Income\">Enter Your Income<\/h3>The first part of creating your budget is entering all your income into the budgeting tool.\nNote that you should estimate your <strong>monthly income.<\/strong> If you have some yearly bonuses or other sources of income that are not paid out monthly, make sure to estimate how much those income sources are per month.<\/div><div class=\"single-article__steps-counter\" id=\"step_3\">Step 3<\/div><div class=\"single-article__steps-content\"><h3 id=\"Write-Down-Your-Expenses\">Write Down Your Expenses<\/h3>The expenditure tab has a lot of different fields for different types of expenses.\nFill in the ones that are relevant to you and leave everything else as $0!<\/div><div class=\"single-article__steps-counter\" id=\"step_4\">Step 4<\/div><div class=\"single-article__steps-content\"><h3 id=\"Enter-Your-Assets\">Enter Your Assets<\/h3>In the\u00a0<strong>assets tab<\/strong> of the tool, you are asked to enter all your assets, such as investments, home equity, and cash.\nThe total value of your assets might change a bit from day to day, but try to give an accurate estimate of your current assets.<\/div><div class=\"single-article__steps-counter\" id=\"step_5\">Step 5<\/div><div class=\"single-article__steps-content\"><h3 id=\"Write-Down-Your-Liabilities\">Write Down Your Liabilities<\/h3>On the\u00a0<strong>liabilities tab<\/strong>, enter information about your liabilities, such as loans, credit card debt, and child support, and alimony.\nSome values, such as outstanding mortgage and <strong>credit card debt<\/strong> should be the total amount, but fields such as <strong>child support<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>alimony<\/strong> should be how much you pay per month.<\/div><div class=\"single-article__steps-counter\" id=\"step_6\">Step 6<\/div><div class=\"single-article__steps-content\"><h3 id=\"See-the-Results\">See the Results<\/h3>On the\u00a0<strong>results page,<\/strong> you will see a snapshot of your current budget and some key metrics about your financial situation.\n<strong>Your answers are saved in the budgeting tool, so you can always come back and edit your<\/strong> answers!<\/div><\/div>            <div class=\"single-article__conclusion\">\n                <div class=\"single-article__conclusion-tag\" id=\"step_7\">Conclusion<\/div>\n                <div class=\"single-article__conclusion-item\">\n                    <div class=\"single-article__conclusion-content\">\n                                                    <h3>Understanding the Key Metrics in the Budgeting Tool Results<\/h3>\n                                                <\/p>When you go through the steps and enter your info into the budgeting tool, you will see some key metrics about your financial situation on the results page.<\/p>\n<\/p>These metrics have been explained in detail in our course <a href=\"https:\/\/financer.com\/courses\/the-financial-freedom-blueprint\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Financial Freedom Blueprint<\/a>. Check out the course if you are not a member yet!<\/p>                    <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n            <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":37432,"featured_media":0,"parent":419,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"disable_branded_featured_image":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37432"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36810"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/financer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51698,"href":"https:\/\/financer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36810\/revisions\/51698"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}