by Sarah Sorne<\/p>\n
If the thought of entering figures into a spreadsheet, laying\u00a0out your spending habits and seeing where your money\u00a0is going sends you hiding, you are in good company. Most\u00a0people are intimidated by the idea of developing a budget.\u00a0It\u2019s all too easy to turn a blind eye to indulgences and how\u00a0they will affect the monthly bottom line. The good news is\u00a0you don’t have to be an expert in personal finance to manage\u00a0your money well. All applications listed here work on both\u00a0Android and iOS, so download them from your app store today\u00a0and start budgeting! The most effective budgets are the\u00a0ones that are developed after months of tracking expenses;\u00a0you will find that managing your money is a marathon, not a\u00a0sprint. Over your lifetime there will be times when you will\u00a0falter, but remember that you can always get back on track.\u00a0By following your spending habits and being knowledgeable\u00a0of your personal finances, you will be better prepared for the\u00a0next challenge.<\/p>\n
Budget<\/p>\n
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Step one is to create a budget,\u00a0or at least be aware of the amount\u00a0of money that is going in and out\u00a0of your accounts. If you have a\u00a0smartphone or tablet you have a\u00a0masterful budgeting tool at your\u00a0fingertips, and there are many\u00a0free apps that can help to automate the process on your behalf.<\/p>\n
The most popular budgeting application is Mint by Intuit.\u00a0Mint started as an online website where users could log in,\u00a0sync their bank accounts and view transactions in real time\u00a0to track spending habits and set limits in budgeting categories.\u00a0Ten years and over 10 million users later their services\u00a0have expanded and individuals can now download the Mint\u00a0app to their smartphones. Users can get a complete look at\u00a0their finances, outstanding loans and investments through\u00a0bright, intuitive charts and graphs. You can view your\u00a0spending trends and even set alerts for when you are coming\u00a0close to reaching limits in budgeting categories. Some other\u00a0free applications with similar features but different user experiences\u00a0include Level Money, Wally+ and PocketGuard.\u00a0No matter what app you choose, you will be taking the first\u00a0step to managing your personal finances.<\/p>\n
Track Expenses<\/p>\n
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If you travel often for work, you\u00a0no doubt are familiar with expense\u00a0reports and have misplaced\u00a0a receipt or forgotten to track your\u00a0mileage. If so, that is money out of\u00a0your pocket! The Expensify app\u00a0makes expense reporting easy and\u00a0allows you to capture receipts, track time and mileage, and\u00a0record your business travel related expenses. Take a picture\u00a0of your receipt from within the application and pick which\u00a0expense report you want to link it to. The application will\u00a0read your receipt and enter the details for you. Best yet, if you\u00a0lose a receipt Expensify can import your credit card transactions\u00a0and create an IRS guaranteed eReceipt for expenses\u00a0under $75.<\/p>\n
Save<\/p>\n
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Once you get a hold of tracking\u00a0your expenses, the next step is\u00a0to see where you can save. Even\u00a0small changes over time can reap\u00a0massive results. If you indulge in a\u00a0fancy $5 cup of coffee or latte five\u00a0days out of the week to get your\u00a0caffeine fix, that is $25 dollars a week\u2014or $1,300 a year!\u00a0Not ready to give up the coffee? You can easily invest in a\u00a0nice coffee or latte maker for under $1,300 and have the convenience\u00a0of making it at home, saving you the time for the\u00a0drive and gas. Look at other expenses that seem fixed, like\u00a0your auto insurance or cable bill and see where you can cut.\u00a0Are you paying for memberships through Amazon Prime\u00a0and Netflix? Try to focus on one change a month and see if it\u00a0is a commitment you can make long term. Start with shaving\u00a0a little off your gas spending. Free apps like GasBuddy allow\u00a0you to find the cheapest price near you.<\/p>\n
Invest<\/p>\n
Sarah S\u00f6rne is a young\u00a0professional and financial\u00a0freedom enthusiast\u00a0living, working and\u00a0investing in Tallahassee.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Sarah Sorne If the thought of entering figures into a spreadsheet, laying\u00a0out your spending habits and seeing where your money\u00a0is going sends you hiding, you are in good company. Most\u00a0people are intimidated by the idea of developing a budget.\u00a0It\u2019s all too easy to turn a blind eye to indulgences and how\u00a0they will affect the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[175,72,6],"tags":[230,232,231,226,16,227,228,225,229],"class_list":["post-792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","category-self-help","category-technology","tag-account","tag-budget","tag-capitol","tag-finance","tag-health","tag-invest","tag-investments","tag-personal","tag-savings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":813,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions\/813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"TFM_Summer_Web_Page_59_Image_0003\"](\"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/TFM_Summer_Web_Page_59_Image_0003.jpg\")
Now you have savings! Are you\u00a0ready to invest? My favorite free\u00a0investment app is Personal Capital<\/a>.\u00a0In addition to tracking your\u00a0balances on bank accounts, credit\u00a0cards and loans you can use it to\u00a0track your investments. I linked it\u00a0to my 401(k), Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) and\u00a0Health Savings Account (HSA) and can track daily, weekly,\u00a0monthly and yearly changes on\u00a0my accounts. The most important\u00a0thing about investing is time in\u00a0the market, so even though you\u00a0may be tempted to move your investments\u00a0to less risky ventures\u00a0when you see a dip in your reporting,\u00a0remember that the power of compound returns is proportional\u00a0to the amount of time that you give the process to\u00a0work. Similar to your new budgeting tools, you can automate
\nyour investments. With Personal Capital<\/a> you can start\u00a0a \u201cYou Index\u201d to track how you are doing and notify you of\u00a0opportunities to diversify your asset allocations.<\/p>\n