Check Your Budget Before It Wrecks You

A ship wreck, just like your budget would wreck your life without review process set i,

The first step towards financial empowerment and garnering a sense of financial control is having a budget.

While I can go on about the benefits of having a budget, today’s topic is not on budgeting.

It is on another particularly important process that goes hand in hand with budgeting.

It is Reviewing.

Let’s say you have created a personal budget today. It covers all your essentials and negotiables including entertainment for you and your family. It also covers a savings plans for

your life goals. You are feeling empowered and everything is under control.

It’s been 1 year since; you have changed homes and bought a new car. Life is progressing. But you make one mistake - Continue with the same budget.

It’s been 3 years since, your family has expanded, you want to buy house, you want to go on international trips. Yet again, you continue with the same budget and savings plan.

Now you start to feel the financial pressures, again – the lack of control, the ‘money is never enough’ rant, ‘I have more month left than money in your account’ etc.

You end up feeling you can never truly learn to manage your money.

The truth is whatever course or personal finance coaching you take up the goal of financial empowerment is achieved only if there is continuance in financial practices. And that continuance is triggered by Reviewing.

The cycle of continuance which starts with reviewing your budget then takes you through - questioning the expenses on the list, looking at alternatives, understanding your values, reflecting on savings plan, and reviewing and finally redrafting a fresh budget.

The reason you have got to do this is because we all evolve, we change, life changes and so does our requirements. And your budget & savings plans should reflect just that.

Think of It like using last year’s GPS to navigate today’s route—it might get you somewhere, but not where you need to be.

And when this happens, frustration sets in.

How often do you need to review?

Every year if not every quarter for your personal budget.

For your business, the review cycle should be carried out more frequently, as it evolves at a faster rate - every quarter if not evert month.

Save yourself from the financial lows. Gift yourself Financial Empowerment – for life!

Budget. Review. Repeat.

Written by

Mrudula Muralidharan

Finance Coach & Founder

Million Goals