photo credit: PPDIGITAL

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.