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Personal Money Management. Learn to manage your money

To begin in forming a budget for your family and for your financial well-being, you need to truly sit down and understand your income and your expenses. While you are going to find lots of ways to cut back on what you are spending, you need to realize what you are bringing into the house and how you can also increase the money that is coming in the home. 

In this article, I am briefly going to cover some of the basic ideas of increasing your income, where your income is coming from, understanding your income a bit more and how to use this information in starting the basis of your family or household budget. 

Where your income is coming from:

Do you and your spouse have a job? Perhaps just one of you is currently working, and the other is receiving aid, support, unemployment, or disability. These are sources of income. Income comes from sales of things, from sales of ideas, artwork, written work, and from working from other people.

Income is available in the means of excess income from savings, mutual funds or from other types of inheritances. Income is also from support from child support, welfare, and disability and from alimony among other things. 

When you are setting up your household budget, you need to consider what are the constants in your life. If you are going to be out of work for three months, create a budget now, and then in three months revamp your budget using a different income. 

If you know you are getting a raise later in six months, only consider what income you have right now, and then change your budget later. 

If you are used to getting a bonus every holiday season, do not count this in your regular budget, as the size of your bonus and even if the bonus is going to exist in three months can easily change. 

Understanding your income a bit more:

Understanding your income is realizing how much you earn in a regular work week. You can�t include over time and bonuses in your household budget unless you regularly receive them without problem, delay or other circumstances interfering with you receiving these bonuses. 

If over time is an occasional �thing� you can use this over time as extra money for your spending needs. Do not include over time in your have to have budget for the family because you are not always going to have this money guaranteed in your paycheck. 

How to use your income as the basis for your budget:

Your budget will include the use of your income, what you usually bring home. Use the after taxes amount that is on your paycheck. If you usually get $500 every two weeks, then that is the amount you use. If you have been getting $450 for the last two weeks because you were sick, you can still use the $500 income in your budget, because that is what you should be making. 

If you have been working a bit more, and you have been bringing home $525 or $575 in the last few weeks, only consider the $500 in your budget as this is what your normal bring home amount is. 

If your income is taking a dive, you are laid off, if you are going to be working less hours, or if you are going to be working only part time for a while, re work your budget to ensure you can still manage the basic have to pay bills. If your income is taking a dive and your bills are more than your income, find a second job, a new job, or eliminate some of your expenses.

Any budget being created for a small family or a large family should be based on twelve months. One month at a time are the bills that you are going to look at. In some months, such as in the beginning of school, around birthdays and holidays, you need extra spending cash, but in other months when the car insurance or life insurance is due, you need a different amount for bills. 

Listing the facts about the twelve months of the year involving your bills, and then reflecting on what your income is during those months will help you create a budget for paying bills and for paying yourself through a saving account.

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