If you've ever started a budget, you've most likely started with good intentions.
Sometimes your budget gets the job done, but other times, it's a serious crash and burn that can leave you in worse shape than when you started.
Every time I've tried to budget in the past, I would always start with a pad and paper.
Unfortunately, by the time I got done trying to do my budget the sheet a paper looked more like a hardcore tournament of tic-tac-toe just took place.
Why? Because I HATE budgeting and even though I suck at tic-tac-toe, it's a whole lot more fun than budgeting.
#budgetingtruthbomb
As much as I hate it, I recognize that it's a must if you have any hope of taking charge of your financial life.
That's where I got lucky. VERY lucky.
My amazing wife is the Queen B in our household with "B." standing for "budgeting." She loves to budget and she does so like a rockstar.
Because of her, our budget doesn't suck.
There are reasons that your budget sucks, and until you get that worked out, it'll never help you reach your financial goals.
Here are 16 reasons that your budget sucks, and how you can fix it.
1. Your budget doesn't match your personality.
In order for a budget to work, it has to fit your personality and lifestyle, and not just yours, but also your family's. Setting up a budget and simply requiring yourself and every member of your household to adhere to it won't make it happen.
For example, if you have a more casual attitude about money, completely denying yourself any cash for free-spending purposes could doom your budget. You may have to accept that at least a small percentage of the budget will have to allow for discretionary spending.
This doesn't mean that you can spend whatever you want. This is a budget, after all, and the goal is to reform your spending habits, not give you a license to mow through every cent you've saved. However, if you know that you will be unable to stick to something that is very rigid, build a little bit of financial flexibility into the budget, and set yourself up for success.
Without going too far with it, you have to at least partially construct your budget around preferences — yours, your spouse's, and even your children's.
2. You're a yo-yo budgeter.
Perhaps you've heard of the term yo-yo dieter.
That's a person who has a long history of on-again, off-again dieting (I'm the perfect example of this since I go from being strict paleo one week to chowing down six doughnuts the next week.) Though they have a desire to lose weight, they lack the will or the discipline to stick to any diet for any length of time.
What makes this even worse is the fact that yo-yo dieting can actually cause the dieter to gain more weight than they lose over the long-term.
The same could be true of you when it comes to budgeting your money. You have a strong desire to get control of your finances, but you lack the discipline and/or the commitment to implement a budget and stick with it for more than a few months, or even a few weeks. And, much like a yo-yo dieter, a yo-yo budget can leave you in worse financial shape than when you started.
Here's the deal: in order for a budget to work, it has to create permanent changes in the way you manage your finances.
Though you may be able to lighten your budget after a year or so, when you first begin you'll have to be very strict — something like a Budget Boot Camp — that will force you to make radical changes in your life. But even if you get past the Boot Camp phase, you still have to retain the basic elements of your budget for the foreseeable future. No backsliding is allowed!
3. Your budget isn't flexible.
Since expenses tend to rise and fall from one month to the next, your budget will not work if there isn't a certain amount of flexibility built into it. That will mean that during the months when there is a surplus in your budget, you'll have to bank it and have it available to shore up the months when your expenses are higher than normal.
You can count on there being a certain amount of inconsistency in your budget from one month to the next, which is why you absolutely must have a plan to even out those ups and downs. Some months simply have more expenses than others, and they seem to come out of nowhere.
In other months you can actually fall off the wagon — you spend more than you should, and it puts you in a bit of a hole. That's actually normal, and as long as it doesn't happen too often, and as long as your budget has enough flexibility to work around it, you'll be fine.
Just make sure you aren't constantly relying on the flexibility of your budget to continue those bad spending habits.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider