hey guys it's Mike and chipper once again so welcome back in today's video
I'm going to be sharing with you how you can set up an accurate monthly budget so
you can forecast and predict your monthly expenses each and every month
with my snipper like accuracy the mission of this channel is to help people like
yourself improve your financial position career and life by helping you learn and
better understand the subject zone below we teach information that will help you
live your life on page this video is a continuation of our course on proper
budgeting if you have not already seen the first two videos in this budgeting
series make sure to check them out okay guys our goal in this video is to really
help you understand your monthly expenses as well as your spending habits
by doing this you are going to be able to set up an accurate budget for
yourself or you and your family this is actually the first step that you would
do before you go and actually make a real budget so I really encourage you to
watch this whole video from start to finish because I really think it's going
to be worth your time and as you guys are watching this video if you think of
questions or things that are working for you currently to help you track your
monthly expenses I would love to hear what they are so please leave those in
the comment section down below a budget does us no good if it is not as accurate
as possible you
when we do not know our monthly spending habits sad things happen one we are
extremely more likely to go into debt and stay in debt - we are less likely to
save money because our spending is out of control and three we are literally
driving ourselves into poverty because the first two things I just mentioned in
other word guys if we're not doing this properly there ain't going to be no
money bin to swim in in our future Kippur show what I mean
order see there is more than one way to track your monthly expenses but in this
particular video we're going to be using a shoebox to help us out and so you guys
don't currently have a shoebox use a bag use a container anything else or you can
keep receipts now there are four easy steps and all to this process so let's
get started
the first step is the easiest of all and that is to get a shoebox container or
bag like I just mentioned and place it somewhere where it's easy for you to
access now step two is a little bit trickier guys but I need your commitment
so I'm asking you guys for a 3-month commitment not to me but to your
personal finances whoa hold on Mike I never made a three-month commitment a
three-month commitment is a long time I think the only thing I've committed
three months to is world of warcraft
listen growing up I had a lot of people very close to me in some real financial
hardships primarily due to debt and overspending I saw the stress on their
face I saw how unhappy they were and they continue to become as they went
further and further into debt so I vowed to never let this happen the means
understanding our monthly expenses it's probably the most important element of
creating our entire budget and will help us keep out of debt so please understand
doing this process is worth your time if you've never done this before I really
encourage you to try it because after you've done it it will completely change
your life and you will understand your monthly expenses better than you've ever
had before and after three months you can stop if
you want to continue to do the tracking and tracking of your expenses go for it
you might want to but all I'm asking you guys for is a three-month commitment do
this for three months and it will completely revolutionize not only your
budget but possibly your life
number three keep all receipts invoices bank statements and credit card
statements for the next three months and place them in a shoebox whenever you
bring new ones home the point of having all these statements is so you have full
visibility of your expenses and spending habits over the next three months if
your bank statements and bills are paperless go online and download your
statements to your computer so you can easily access them because you will need
them for the next step now I would really consider writing
notes on the receipts or also on the statements so you know what each expense
is for when you go and look back at this you're going to have receipts related to
groceries you might have utility statements or bills you might have phone
bills you might have receipts from the mall you might have receipts from going
up dinner supply stores you know you name it fuel oil change it's all all
there but try your best to keep every one of these receipts okay yeah but Mike
what about all these receipts I'm totally going to misplace them I'm a
mess I'm just organized and I don't think I can do this the solution for
that is what I did is I brought a ziploc bag with me I had this ziplock bags at
home and I kept a couple ziplock bags at Mike in my car and at work so that I
said to keep all the receipts in that bag and that way I was sure not to lose
them
at the end of each month what I need you to do is look at the receipts bank
statements credit card statements etc and begin categorizing your expenses on
paper or in a program such as Microsoft Excel when I first did this I started
tracking these monthly expenses just on a normal piece of binder paper
but later on as I wanted something more and more accurate and easier for me to
use then I switch to using Microsoft Excel when you do this you're going to
have general expense categories and sub expense category for example a very
general type of expense category would be car expenses now think of all the
expenses that you have every month with your car you're going to have gas
insurance fuel car repairs you know maintenance etc you can take
the stained approach for your groceries for your household supplies for your
utility bills cell phone bills I think you guys get the idea so do this process
for the next three months and develop a three month average for each expense
listed now you will have solid numbers to use to start constructing a very
accurate monthly budget okay Mike this whole tracking your expensive thing
it's really cute and all but listen you know I already know my numbers I have
them right up here so I don't need to track my monthly expenses I already know
them you're just a try-hard broke I would bet if you've never done this
process before I would bet that you do not know your numbers recently I had the
privilege of seeing Kevin O'Leary from shark tank speak live on a stage a few
weeks ago in Las Vegas he says that the people who make it in business know
their numbers and those who do not spell it is as simple as that the same is true
for our personal finances if you and I do not have accurate numbers for our
monthly budget we are going to fail financially I don't know about you guys
but I am not working as hard as I am to die broke now
here's an example of somebody who does not know their numbers take a look how
much revenue are you typically collecting from that three-month
customer between 300 and 500 dollars so your average
I'm sorry 300 and 600 all right okay so you that's a big range so it's hard to
get a feel something's not adding up for me the numbers don't seem to add up
Roberts right it feels to me like you need a partner that can explain to me
because you don't some be able to do it customer acquisition costs margins
attrition which Robert identified to have a huge attrition rate in other
words people come use it just go away thank you and your your numbers aren't
adding up I think I they're just god I just need to get sear on the numbers you
just said it right there how can you come in here and say I need to get clear
on the numbers I thought I had a good basic understanding oh you're terrible
terrible so there you have it guys do this just for three months it's probably
only going to take you about an hour or two at the end of each month to
accumulate all your receipts and start writing out those monthly expenses
it is so worth your time to do it guys if you do it you're going to be on your
way to a very accurate monthly budget that you can use for the rest of your
life or at that at a minimum you probably won't have to tweak tweak it
very much after that best of all you'll probably know your
finances better than you ever had before if you liked the video we're not alike
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have a wonderful week I will see you all in the next video peace