Graph Paper

Are the person responsible for the majority of family financial management decisions? For many people, that prospect is about as pleasant as an emergency appendectomy on your first day of the holiday. However, handling your personal finances need not be such a daunting task. There are many tricks, tips and tools to make your financial life easier, more profitable and secure. Before you can all decisions, you need to provide a complete picture of your finances.

Step one: Do not panic!

Step two: Time to get organized. This means you collect your checkbook to handle your monthly bills, pay stubs, bank statements and other records of expenses or income you have in May. Put them in clusters according to income, assets (such as savings, investments), and expenses.

Step Three: Make a table. I hear you scream out there - it is not as awful as it sounds. If you have a program on your computer such as Excel, you can use this. This is not the case, you can take a piece of graph paper or even a legal pad. Everything you are doing is the columns and rows. Simple, huh?

Here is an example of the information that you are the following aspects:

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In the first line of the left column of the page you have sections marked

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INCOME,

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costs, and

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savings. Under each of these labels put whatever you have that fits into this category. For example:

INCOME

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Dad's Paycheck

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Mom's Paycheck

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Alimony

EXPENSES

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Mortgage

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electricity

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car payment

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tuition

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food

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Credit Card

INVESTMENT

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savings

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IRA

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College Fund

Across the top of the form that months:

January February March April etc.

You the idea. Save the form as your financial document for the current year, for example, "Financial Report 2007." (You can, to see a completed sample table on our website. Check the web address at the end of this article.)

Now fill all the data you have for the year so far. Everything. Every bit profit and loss account. Every possible effort, you can track. Every bit of money you have invested. Done? Great job!

Now add all the numbers in each section of income, savings, and expenses for each month. You should have a total expense figure for Jan, Feb, etc. You should have a total income figure for each month and a total savings picture for every month. You will need this information to find out your budget.

Okay, now the difficult question. Which number is graer - the total income or total expenditure for each month? Be honest with yourself when you are spending more each month than you make, you need to develop a budget NOW!

If your costs are more than your income, do not panic . Yes, it's scary, but now you have the complete picture. Now is the time to fix the problems so you can forward and have a happy life ,

There software tools and some large financial Books available to help you organize it in a simpler. We have this on our credit cards Family Friendly site , together with other articles on this topic. Look for the next installment of this article series "Family Financial Management 2 or I suspect that someone from Enron Balanced my checkbook application." There we discuss some of the methods you can use to focus your budget and your budget on track.

If evaluation showed They are making more money than you are spending - congratulations ! So how much are you saving? Where are you saving it? For what purpose? Those pesky financial issues seem to never end! It is however important, no matter what your financial picture to always evaluating your current financial situation and to know how to deal with money. Because it is your money. If you control over your money and know-how can you plan your daily finances, you can "a happy life."

Karen Grant is an author and publisher of multiple sites including Family Friendly Credit Cards. The site offers great articles, tips and tools on managing your credit and personal finances. You will find helpful financial calculators and tools at http://www.familyfriendlycreditcards.com/BestCreditCardTips.html The site also offers credit management articles and an informative, fun, & FREE e-course on Personal Financial Management along with their top selections in current credit card offerings.

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