Budgeting Secrets "They" Didn't Want You To Know

Being able to efficiently manage money is the ultimate secret to wealth. It has nothing to do with how much you make. Besides, most money managed is often hard earned, which is why it's so important to have a budget. Why waste all that effort? With the proper budget, you should be able to easily see where your money is going, how to get more bang for your buck in almost every aspect of your costly life, and help you find some excess to save and put away for future use.

The biggest and most well-kept "secret" when it comes to effective budgeting is to set a goal. If you aim for nothing you're sure to hit it. So what do you want to achieve? Do you want to settle your debt once and for all? Do you want to put some money aside for your future? Are you planning on retiring in 5, 10, 20 years? With a goal in mind you can better shape your budget to suit your needs.

Once you've had a goal, you want to be able to make notes as to where your money consistently goes.This includes things like insurance payments, property taxes, grocery costs, gas, and on and on. You should also take note of money you spend on various other non-necessity items. Only once you've mapped out your budget will you be able to identify where your money goes and which expenses you can cut down or do without.

How much do you spend on your daily caffeine in the morning? Do you really have to have that brand of coffee? Can you cut it out altogether, or at least get a cheaper alternative? How about the newspaper you receive daily? Why not just read it on the internet for free? A $2 coffee every morning is a $730 yearly bill. Cutting coffee out entirely will give you 100% of that; buying coffee for $1 instead of $2 will give you a 50% return on money that isn't really going towards anything productive. You would be surprised at how much more you're spending than you think.


Debt is a vicious cycle in and of itself. Do you want an instant, guaranteed 18% return on your money? Pay off all of your credit card bills. These things have continuous payments and huge interest rates. Whatever excess cash you may have should be added onto the payments of your credit cards until they're absolutely gone. Going through your monthly excesses will burn that debt right off in no time at all.