Introduction: The How to Guide on Setting
Up a Family Budget - Table of Contents
"The average family exists only on paper and
its average budget is a fiction, invented by statisticians for the convenience
of statisticians."
~ Sylvia
Porter
Unlike the quote provided above, seemingly
reflective of general opinion on family budgets today, we will attempt to take
a much more positive approach to budgeting, as a family oriented,
user-friendly, financial management and planning tool and life-enabler.
However, when reflecting on family budgeting
and inquiring as to why not more families are actually using it, it becomes
self-evident that similar skepticism runs rampant and deep in reality and
society, even globally so.
Once you start probing family budgets,
expending time and energy researching the subject in-depth, it becomes quite
clear, that most families are caught in a vicious, almost never-ending cycle of
“What comes in must go out.”
Most families might feel that budgeting is a
futile effort, unnecessarily burdening them with thoughts and ways, to go broke
methodically and slowly, without the creature comforts and indulgences of our
human modern-day society.
Others might voice that they feel as if they
are merely throwing money away, in a never-ending and dizzying spiral of spend,
spend, spend. People are getting deeper and deeper into debt, no matter how hard
they try to get out of it. Questions are then raised : How do we stop these
courses of action? How do we change the thinking around family fiscal
discipline?
Put simply, in this section of How to set
up a Family Budget, we focus in on how to empower families to set up better,
more realistic budgets, stick to them and celebrate their successes (and learn
from their failures!)
Families eventually do have a monthly
surplus, see their savings start to grow, consolidate their debt, set aside
discretionary funds and personal allowances, build their wealth and become more
aware of their pro-active involvement and responsibility regarding their lives
and finances. This is when excitement builds and fundamental thought
patters as well as spending attitudes are changed.
Budgeting is seen as an accurate measurement
of success when significant behavioral transformation is taking place on
the landscape of the family budget, spending habits and financial patterns we
observe over time!
Next article: Do You Need a Family Budget?
Family Budgeting: Table of Contents -
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