It is time to begin establishing a family budget for 2018. Also it is time to determine how you are going to have your 2017 tax return filed and when. I use Turbo Tax. Turbo Tax is easy to follow and can save your family a considerable amount over having a tax preparation service or CPA prepare your return. January 1st is the best time to start a new check register resulting in keeping 2017 and 2018 transactions separated.
Information Needed To Prepare Your Family Budget (Use an Excel spreadsheet to list these items) (1) Amounts of your net income items by month after taxes and other deductions, in other words your net take home pay by month (2) Enter Information for the other income items by the dates they will be received. (3)Enter interest and dividend information by the anticipated dates they are to be received. After you have all of the income items broken down by month on the Excel spreadsheet, total the income by month.
Next prepare the monthly family Expense Budget.
Some suggested items in the expense budget are: (1) House payment or rent (2) Car Payments (3)Electric bill (4) Heating cost (5) Utilities (6)Insurance-home (7)Insurance-auto (8)gasoline (9)Auto expenses (10) Medical Insurance (11) Medical Expenses (12)TV and internet Expense (13) Computer supplies (14) Telephone Expense (15)Pet Expenses (16)Home maintenance (17)Food (18)Meals out expense (18)Clothing expense (19)Personal items (20)Entertainment expense (21)Credit card payments (22)Loan payments (22)Dues and memberships (Add any other expense categories you have.
Total all of the EXPENSE CATEGORIES by month.
DEDUCT THE TOTAL EXPENSES BY MONTH FROM THE TOTAL INCOME BY MONTH. If the total expenses in a particular month exceed the total income than you will need to see what expense items you can cut to stay at or below the income total for that month.It is possible that the expenses might exceed the income in one month and be less than the income in the next month or months, in that case you may not need to adjust your expenses if the excess income occurs within a month or so of the deficit. If your expenses are less than the income than determine where you want to put the excess funds. Savings , vacation funds, entertainment funds, new furniture, save for a car , education fund, or possibly cover for a preceding month that is over budget.
Each family has their own unique set of circumstances. If you need to see forms before you prepare yours or if you want to pattern your forms after some that are in use, there are numerous budget framework items included if you search on the internet for personal budget forms, some of them are free.
Having a family budget can be fun and will help put your mind at ease as the year progresses.