Thursday, 3 Apr 2008
People often wonder how they should go about making a budget. In my opinion, CREATING a budget is easy. It’s STICKING TO the budget that can be hard. Here are the simple guidelines I used when I created a budget. Of course, you can tweak these percentages as need be.
tithes or charity – 10%
retirement savings – 20%
savings (e-fund) – 5%
taxes (estimated effective rate) – 15% for homeowners, 25% for renters
housing – 30% (mortgage/PITI and maintenance) for homeowners, 20% for renters
everything else – 20%
I’ve found that using these amounts as a guideline will have you well on your way to financial stability/independence.


