Without a budget, all you can do is to stay one step ahead of our bills without ever reaching a safety net. Basically you can choose to live paycheck to paycheck or create a better future for yourself by being more discipline.

Think of a budget as a financial step to free yourself from potential future failure. The sooner you act the better off you will be. Creating a monthly budget is a sure way to set yourself up happiness and success. A budget is a tool to increase your consciousness of how and where you spend your money, a guideline to help you spend your money wisely on the things that absolutely necessary to you and that will ultimately help you create a better future for your family.

A budget allows you to control your family's spending so that you have enough money to pay your bills while also saving for vacations, retirement and your children's education.

The first step is setting up a sheet that includes all your income and monthly expenses that you can easily be tracked. A successful budget will track your income, all monthly expenses setting savings as well as money for retirement

There are many worksheets available in books and online, but be sure to add and delete categories to customize the worksheet to your needs. Feel free to contact me and I will email or fax you a "Monthly Expense Sheet".

STEP 1: Get out three months of pay stubs and determine your average monthly income.

STEP 2: Gather 3 months of bills, add them up and divide by 3 to calculate your monthly expenses such as rent or mortgage, utilities and phone, car payment, insurance, student loan payments, groceries, clothing, credit card expenses, medical bills and cash outlays. Divide by 3 and add the result to your monthly expenses.

STEP 3: Evaluate your expenses; look for opportunities to save, and develop a plan to cut  unnecessary spending.

STEP 4: Develop a monthly budget and stick to it.

STEP 5: Set up a savings plan such as a savings account, certificate of deposit (CD) and/or individual retirement account (IRA - 401K - Roth IRA), and begin making monthly and direct deposits.

STEP 6: Track your income and expenses monthly to evaluate how the plan is working, then fine-tune to produce the desired results.