Insurance Company To Launch My Budget Day
If you’ve been looking for a way to save money on your insurance premiums, this article is for you.
We are thrilled to announce that we’re rolling out a new company called My Budget Day Insurance. This launch is just the first of many things we have planned and are excited to offer to our members. We want you knowing your budget inside and out, so that when it comes time for renewal, there’s no question how much more money you can put into savings or how much more free cash flow you will have every month.
How My Budget Day Insurance is different
This new company, My Budget Day Insurance, is built on the same principles of personal finance and budgeting that we’ve used for over 10 years. It goes beyond just tracking your spending and helps you create a monthly plan to save money and free up cash flow.
It’s based on the Kiplinger Personal Finance System®, which has been featured in more than 400 publications and is recognized by The Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, Whole World Term Sheet (WTC), BusinessWeek magazine, CareerBuilder.com and Money Magazine.
Unlike other budgeting tools, Kiplinger’s daily budget doesn’t just tell you how much you spent each day–it encourages you to make smart decisions. You are presented with a variety of different budgets, so it’s easy to choose the one that works best for you. Once your daily budget is set, you spend the rest of your time making good decisions and building financial muscle.
You have the power to save money! My Budget Day Insurance with Kiplinger's Personal Finance System helps you keep track of your expenses. It provides you with a monthly cash flow forecast to help you plan ahead and build your savings.
We want to hear your feedback. And we’re already planning for even more features that will be rolled out over time. Be sure to give us your feedback, and tell us what you like or what could use improvement. We’d love to know!
Check out www.mybudgetdayinsurance.com, www.KiplingerInsuranceCompany.com and www.KiplingerCompanyInfo@aol.com for more information.
By:
J. Brett Zoller - Founder & CEO of Kiplinger Insurance Company
Articles by J. Brett Zoller, Founder & CEO of Kiplinger Insurance Company: [ARTICLE] [ARTICLE] [ARTICLE] [ARTICLE] [ARTICLE] [ARTICLE] [TALKER PAGE], and are provided in unmodified form as a service of the Kiplinger Personal Finance Web Site . Copyright is owned by J. Brett Zoller or others noted. Please direct all inquiries to J. Brett Zoller at admin@KiplingerCompanyInfo@aol.com .
Contrary to what you may think, it really is possible to live richly on a budget. But you have to be willing to make smart choices, starting with how you spend your money. Here are six steps that can help you become more financially savvy.
1. Prioritize your expenses and make monthly and quarterly budgeting part of your lifestyle. There's an easy way to figure out how much money you need each month just by multiplying the number of days in a month by the amount of money needed for food and transportation. Add general expenses and divide by 30 days to determine your monthly budget. For example, food and transportation costs for a single person consuming 2,000 calories a day at $2 per 1,000 calories will be enough for 40 days. If I'm paying $200 a month for health care, I know this amount needs to cover me for 60 days. Another way to work out your monthly budget is to add up all the income you receive each month and record it in cash flow form. Then subtract the largest expense you have every month — typically housing — from the amount of cash flow left over.
2. Create an itemized list of everything you spend money on each month that is not an essential expense (e.g. clothing, entertainment and dining out). To make this easier, make a spreadsheet on your computer that includes the following columns: Date, Description, Amount and Balance (current amount owed). Don't include insurance premiums or doctor visits unless they're an ongoing expense. Add up each item on your list to determine the total you spend on all nonessential expenses each month (figure out what you owe for past draws from your bank accounts, credit cards and other sources of cash). Divide that number by 30 and record it in the Balance column. Use this column as a starting point for future monthly budgets.
3. Reduce spending on items that have a higher balance. Ideally, you should be spending less than the amount you have left over after food, transportation and your largest monthly expense. If not, look at cutting back on items that have a high balance. For example, if your balance is $50 and you spend $40 a month eating out or entertaining friends, you can reduce this to $30 or even $20 for the sake of your financial health. Similarly, even if a particular service has a low balance of $5 per month — say, Internet service — if it's something you don't absolutely need to survive (or at least get by), find ways to eliminate it from your budget altogether.
4. Set up a separate account for discretionary expenses. If you don't set money aside to spend on nonessential items, you will be tempted to spend it on something else. So set up a separate account for discretionary spending and prioritize what you'll be spending on. To make it easier, consider paying for these types of expenses in cash so you can keep track of the money as it goes out the door.
5. Make your own list of necessities and use this as a guide to help determine what you absolutely need. For example, if eating out is not an essential expense (you can easily eat at home), eliminate it from your budget and put the money toward feeding yourself instead.
Conclusion: You will be able to save more money if you spend less on nonessential items, especially if you have the resources to do so.
6. Set up a budget that works for you and stick to it. This means establishing a monthly budget that allows you enough money to cover your monthly expenses, then adding any discretionary spending as necessary each month. It's also important to follow a robust system of cash flow forecasting that will help you plan ahead and save more each month than the amount you use for nonessential expenses and necessary items such as food, clothing and transportation (if any). You may think this isn't possible, but it is.