Even though the early months of 2014 have come and gone, now is still a good time to create a 2014 Pagemonth Home Budget if you haven't begun one yet. Why?
You should have your income and checking account information in hand now, with income deposited and showing on your latest statement, all bills paid and recorded in your checkbook, and most late adjustments cleared at your bank.
Moreover, you should have had a chance by now to reconcile your first checking account statements of 2014 with your own checkbook entries and balanced your bank statement and checkbook, so you can now plan out the rest of the year.
The point I am trying to emphasize is that there has only been a few months' information to finalize so far--a relatively manageable amount--and it shouldn't be difficult to correct any errors or clear up any questions by a simple call to your bank.
Later this year--say, by August or September, it will become more challenging, as you can imagine. It's possible to begin a budget in any month, but you won't have anything recorded for previous months. You will need to enter a beginning balance manually for the month you begin and go forward from then. If you want to review summary information--say, for filing upcoming income taxes-- you will need to backtrack through the months you missed and plug in a lot of data before you can use it. Again, it can be done, but it takes much more time and multiplies confusion the longer you wait. Simply rounding up bills, receipts and other paperwork and trying to organize and record it all can be daunting.
Another unwise home budget approach too many take is to create a 2014 budget early in the year, then ignore it till several months have gone by. And such users are shocked to find that what looked like a good plan with a good result when they created it in December has come apart at the seams when they turn to it in April, May, or June.
Any home budget worth using plans ahead through the year, true enough, but then gets updated almost daily all year long as numbers and items change and "guesstimates" become more accurate. No one--including me--can predict what may happen tomorrow, next week or next month. That's why revising and editing is the normal task of home budgeting, no matter when you create one.
But the benefits of keeping a good home budget up to date are very great, whatever product or service you are using. It can caution you before you make purchases you need to put off, reward you when good things happen like getting a promotion or raise, warn you in time to head off unexpected repairs, provide buffers that you are comfortable with so when the insurance goes up or the car breaks down it won't sink your plans, and in general let you sleep soundly at night.
The more you budget, the easier it gets. As your fortunes rise you still need to do it, and during tough times it will show you a way to recover and thrive again. Our Pagemonth Home Budgets for Excel or MSWorks are free, and our support pages are extensive and also free. If you want to begin to manage your home finances effectively, we encourage you to download our budgets and templates at the bottom of our homepage.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
No Ads, No Spyware, and No User Tracking
We think we offer the best free home budgets available anywhere. And we encourage anyone in need of a free or low-cost home budget to download any or all of our four free budget and template files.
We have listed our Pagemonth Advantages on our home page. But to them we have recently added "No ads, no spyware, and no user tracking." I want to elaborate on these here, where I have more space than in the list of a home page.
These three things apply to our free home budget and template files, not our website pages. We do include Google ads on the top and bottom of each website page, but we insist they be relevant to our page and not contain objectionable content.
Further, we do not permit any spyware in our files as do many free or low-cost budgets. We do not solicit user information nor sell it to anyone, period.
And we do not track our users. Where they go, what sites they visit, what they download--none of it. Our spreadsheets are private and belong entirely to those who download them from our website, We do not track our users' use of our files or what they do with them.
We are serious about our budgets being private, secure, and user-anonymous. We hope you will tell your friends, neighbors, and online contacts about our free home budgets and encourage them to try us,, because an increasing base of users is our only way to begin to defray our own ad costs. But we won't know if you do or not. We don't track you, remember?.
We have listed our Pagemonth Advantages on our home page. But to them we have recently added "No ads, no spyware, and no user tracking." I want to elaborate on these here, where I have more space than in the list of a home page.
These three things apply to our free home budget and template files, not our website pages. We do include Google ads on the top and bottom of each website page, but we insist they be relevant to our page and not contain objectionable content.
Further, we do not permit any spyware in our files as do many free or low-cost budgets. We do not solicit user information nor sell it to anyone, period.
And we do not track our users. Where they go, what sites they visit, what they download--none of it. Our spreadsheets are private and belong entirely to those who download them from our website, We do not track our users' use of our files or what they do with them.
We are serious about our budgets being private, secure, and user-anonymous. We hope you will tell your friends, neighbors, and online contacts about our free home budgets and encourage them to try us,, because an increasing base of users is our only way to begin to defray our own ad costs. But we won't know if you do or not. We don't track you, remember?.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Set Up Your 2014 Pagemonth Home Budget
Pagemonth users should prepare their 2014 home budget now if they have not already done so. Free budgets and free templates for Excel or MSWorks can be downloaded instantly at the bottom of our home page (pagemonth.com).
How to prepare for the new budget year?
Although all of our budgets and templates have identical formulas and formats, the information you will enter or modify will change from month to month, due to changes in the number of days in the month, which day of the week holidays will fall on, and similar data that change from one year to another.
So in setting up a 2014 budget the first thing to do is get a whole year 2014 calendar, such as the one on the back of your bank check register.
Next, Title your budget "budget14.xls" for Excel (or .xlr for Works) to keep it separate from earlier years, and always save it to its title to make certain you're working with the right file.
Next. move your 2013 file off your desktop into My Documents and pull it to back to the desktop only for revisions. (You will have revisions to make for a few weeks or even months.) The principle is that to use the correct year budget, have only the active year's file on the desktop at a time, and keep other years' files elsewhere.
Setting up your 2014 budget will be easier if you follow the suggestions on our Setup Page. Frame a workspace as described, then set up your January page first. Enter your expected income and expenses on the right hand, budget side under categories you choose, then distribute what you entered by dates on the left hand, cash flow side.
Unless you know to the penny particular amounts, use whole numbers and estimate to the nearest $5.00 or $10.00 on each item, as this will help locate estimated amounts to the eye. They will be revised to actual transacted amounts through the year, and actual amounts will be easier to identify visually because they will specify cents.
Estimate income amounts a bit lower than expected and expense amounts higher, and be prepared to modify even these for unexpected benefits and costs such as emergencies, accidents, raises or promotions.
Don't enter anticipated charges unless they are known or broadly estimated, such as planning to charge about $5,000 on next August's vacation or Christmas shopping. Since anticipated costs or income can be so nebulous, I seldom set aside amounts for them till they come into better focus. But as soon as you can anticipate any major changes--a move, a new job or house, another car or the end of installment loans, try to build in when you will expect your amounts to require adjustment.
Remember that no budget worth taking seriously can be locked in stone. You will be updating and revising it almost daily throughout the year, and that process will make it more accurate in reflecting actual transactions completed and projecting future ones.
When you have January's data set up, copy and paste it through the year's remaining months. You will be returning to each of them for adjustments in dates, items, and amounts, but gradually you will bring your financial picture into focus.
Enter your January Beginning Balance manually in cell J3. This cell is the only Beginning Balance in your 2014 file that requires you to enter an amount directly; Subsequent cells in the other eleven months of 2014 will be automatically carried forward from the End Balance of their previous month.
One of Pagemonth Budget's most underutilized advantages is its capability to test every aspect of itself to see "What would happen if . . .?" without saving in order to preserve prior data intact. So long as you do not save it, feel free to give yourself a raise, pay off any debts, or whatever you wish, and it will show you the immediate effect it will have throughout the month and year. This feature can be a great motivator. But be very careful not to save any scenario you create in a test, "trial budget" which might be mistaken for an actual, active file, If you create one you really want to keep, give it a name such as "2014trialbudget.xls" or "Iwish.xlr" before you save it, and keep it off your desktop unless tinkering with it.
If you utilize this advantage, you will be able to create a scenario of getting and spending that you can embrace for 2014 and use it as a blueprint, reference budget to adjust your real one.
How to prepare for the new budget year?
Although all of our budgets and templates have identical formulas and formats, the information you will enter or modify will change from month to month, due to changes in the number of days in the month, which day of the week holidays will fall on, and similar data that change from one year to another.
So in setting up a 2014 budget the first thing to do is get a whole year 2014 calendar, such as the one on the back of your bank check register.
Next, Title your budget "budget14.xls" for Excel (or .xlr for Works) to keep it separate from earlier years, and always save it to its title to make certain you're working with the right file.
Next. move your 2013 file off your desktop into My Documents and pull it to back to the desktop only for revisions. (You will have revisions to make for a few weeks or even months.) The principle is that to use the correct year budget, have only the active year's file on the desktop at a time, and keep other years' files elsewhere.
Setting up your 2014 budget will be easier if you follow the suggestions on our Setup Page. Frame a workspace as described, then set up your January page first. Enter your expected income and expenses on the right hand, budget side under categories you choose, then distribute what you entered by dates on the left hand, cash flow side.
Unless you know to the penny particular amounts, use whole numbers and estimate to the nearest $5.00 or $10.00 on each item, as this will help locate estimated amounts to the eye. They will be revised to actual transacted amounts through the year, and actual amounts will be easier to identify visually because they will specify cents.
Estimate income amounts a bit lower than expected and expense amounts higher, and be prepared to modify even these for unexpected benefits and costs such as emergencies, accidents, raises or promotions.
Don't enter anticipated charges unless they are known or broadly estimated, such as planning to charge about $5,000 on next August's vacation or Christmas shopping. Since anticipated costs or income can be so nebulous, I seldom set aside amounts for them till they come into better focus. But as soon as you can anticipate any major changes--a move, a new job or house, another car or the end of installment loans, try to build in when you will expect your amounts to require adjustment.
Remember that no budget worth taking seriously can be locked in stone. You will be updating and revising it almost daily throughout the year, and that process will make it more accurate in reflecting actual transactions completed and projecting future ones.
When you have January's data set up, copy and paste it through the year's remaining months. You will be returning to each of them for adjustments in dates, items, and amounts, but gradually you will bring your financial picture into focus.
Enter your January Beginning Balance manually in cell J3. This cell is the only Beginning Balance in your 2014 file that requires you to enter an amount directly; Subsequent cells in the other eleven months of 2014 will be automatically carried forward from the End Balance of their previous month.
One of Pagemonth Budget's most underutilized advantages is its capability to test every aspect of itself to see "What would happen if . . .?" without saving in order to preserve prior data intact. So long as you do not save it, feel free to give yourself a raise, pay off any debts, or whatever you wish, and it will show you the immediate effect it will have throughout the month and year. This feature can be a great motivator. But be very careful not to save any scenario you create in a test, "trial budget" which might be mistaken for an actual, active file, If you create one you really want to keep, give it a name such as "2014trialbudget.xls" or "Iwish.xlr" before you save it, and keep it off your desktop unless tinkering with it.
If you utilize this advantage, you will be able to create a scenario of getting and spending that you can embrace for 2014 and use it as a blueprint, reference budget to adjust your real one.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
WebHostFace: the Best Webhost Anywhere
Merry Christmas to all the smiling faces at my new webhost, Webhostface.com!
I first learned of this excellent webhost from a strong desire to find a better company to deal with after I left my former host, tired of long waits, runarounds and incomplete answers. When the last guy told me after I tried to ask a follow-up question, "Look, I have others waiting," I began seeking a new one with an RVSitebuilder editing/publishing tool--a must-have since Pagemonth was created and maintained by that system.
Webhostface uses RVSitebuilder as its main website creation, editing and publishing tool, but here the similarity to any other ends.
Webhostface is about two dozen highly-qualified, highly-motivated young people with superb internet knowledge and diversity, uncanny fluency in English and many other languages,, 24/7 worldwide toll-free 800 number or personal chat at no charge whatsoever for the first month, then a very reasonable annual fee,personal warmth, individual attention, genuine caring and unhurried assistance.
There is no way I can list all of their friendly support and advantages here. You can get to know them better on Facebook at webhostface, or call 1-866-389-6676, or go to and explore http://webhostface.com anytime.
And check this out: http://webhostface.com/staff?opid=16. Who is the lovely lady in the picture? That's Rali, opid=16 and short for Ralitsa Mincheva. In fact, everyone has his or her smiling face pictured on a staff opid number. Inna=6. Victor=14. Silvia=10, and so on.. But not only can you see the person you're chatting with, you can learn their age, skills and expertise, likes and dislikes, education and majors, and how other staffers describe her or him. And be sure to meet Valentin Sharlanoff, opid=1. He founded Webhostface and remains its CEO, yet even he gets the same write-up, picture, and treatment as all the others.
When I first called, Rali picked up on the second ring. She's the Billing Manager, but she didn't immediately pass me off to another department. She explained everything I asked about, and spent about twenty minutes helping me navigate my signup for a free month's trial and login procedure. Since her shift was ending she connected me to Silvia, a Senior Sales Rep whom I later learned normally serves in chat, not phone. I have since phoned with Inna, another senior sales rep, Victor, a Support Team member, Ivo, another Senior Sales Rep. Radoslav ("Rado") and several others. None of them hurried me in any way as I sought to follow their step-by-step instructions. Name another webhost like that!
They work together seamlessly and cooperatively, all of them. And they do what they say they will do to solve my issues and do not give up on any of them until I report it solved. One can use a support ticket, but it's not usually needed due to the informative, patient personal conversation and chat. Name another webhost like that!
Christina (=4) answered my call a few days ago when I had a question about what I saw after login. Wherever I moved my mouse, tiny white circles fell and swirled through the illustrations then gathered at the page bottom. "It looks like it's snowing," I said. "Yes, that's snow." she said. "I can turn it off if you like."
Rado (=9) taught me that I don't even need to log in to manage/edit/publish my website, thus saving me many hours of logins and navigation. He showed me two ways to do it. And he stuck with me while I did it. He also taught me to use Firefox or Chrome for most tasks, not Explorer, which often presented errors. Thank you, Radoslav!
Silvia has helped me through many chats, brief and long, and she's never left me guessing about how to follow through. Thank you, Silvija!
As you may have guessed from a few names above, Webhostface is a Bulgarian company, located in Plovdiv. But despite its location it has other locations worldwide. In the 1980's and 1990's when the technological revolution was taking place in nearby countries, its youth grew up learning many languages and cultures and stressing electronic communications, marketing, business and finance.
You cannot tell from phone cslls or chats alone, but this happy group is extremely versatile and fun-loving. Their motto is "Service always comes with a smiling face," and they actually live up to it! Others would do well to emulate them. They have told me more than once when I've contacted them and feared I was wearing out my welcome, "Nelson, we consider you to be one of us." I could not conceive of a higher compliment. Merry Christmas, friends, and have a joyous New Year.
I first learned of this excellent webhost from a strong desire to find a better company to deal with after I left my former host, tired of long waits, runarounds and incomplete answers. When the last guy told me after I tried to ask a follow-up question, "Look, I have others waiting," I began seeking a new one with an RVSitebuilder editing/publishing tool--a must-have since Pagemonth was created and maintained by that system.
Webhostface uses RVSitebuilder as its main website creation, editing and publishing tool, but here the similarity to any other ends.
Webhostface is about two dozen highly-qualified, highly-motivated young people with superb internet knowledge and diversity, uncanny fluency in English and many other languages,, 24/7 worldwide toll-free 800 number or personal chat at no charge whatsoever for the first month, then a very reasonable annual fee,personal warmth, individual attention, genuine caring and unhurried assistance.
There is no way I can list all of their friendly support and advantages here. You can get to know them better on Facebook at webhostface, or call 1-866-389-6676, or go to and explore http://webhostface.com anytime.
And check this out: http://webhostface.com/staff?opid=16. Who is the lovely lady in the picture? That's Rali, opid=16 and short for Ralitsa Mincheva. In fact, everyone has his or her smiling face pictured on a staff opid number. Inna=6. Victor=14. Silvia=10, and so on.. But not only can you see the person you're chatting with, you can learn their age, skills and expertise, likes and dislikes, education and majors, and how other staffers describe her or him. And be sure to meet Valentin Sharlanoff, opid=1. He founded Webhostface and remains its CEO, yet even he gets the same write-up, picture, and treatment as all the others.
When I first called, Rali picked up on the second ring. She's the Billing Manager, but she didn't immediately pass me off to another department. She explained everything I asked about, and spent about twenty minutes helping me navigate my signup for a free month's trial and login procedure. Since her shift was ending she connected me to Silvia, a Senior Sales Rep whom I later learned normally serves in chat, not phone. I have since phoned with Inna, another senior sales rep, Victor, a Support Team member, Ivo, another Senior Sales Rep. Radoslav ("Rado") and several others. None of them hurried me in any way as I sought to follow their step-by-step instructions. Name another webhost like that!
They work together seamlessly and cooperatively, all of them. And they do what they say they will do to solve my issues and do not give up on any of them until I report it solved. One can use a support ticket, but it's not usually needed due to the informative, patient personal conversation and chat. Name another webhost like that!
Christina (=4) answered my call a few days ago when I had a question about what I saw after login. Wherever I moved my mouse, tiny white circles fell and swirled through the illustrations then gathered at the page bottom. "It looks like it's snowing," I said. "Yes, that's snow." she said. "I can turn it off if you like."
Rado (=9) taught me that I don't even need to log in to manage/edit/publish my website, thus saving me many hours of logins and navigation. He showed me two ways to do it. And he stuck with me while I did it. He also taught me to use Firefox or Chrome for most tasks, not Explorer, which often presented errors. Thank you, Radoslav!
Silvia has helped me through many chats, brief and long, and she's never left me guessing about how to follow through. Thank you, Silvija!
As you may have guessed from a few names above, Webhostface is a Bulgarian company, located in Plovdiv. But despite its location it has other locations worldwide. In the 1980's and 1990's when the technological revolution was taking place in nearby countries, its youth grew up learning many languages and cultures and stressing electronic communications, marketing, business and finance.
You cannot tell from phone cslls or chats alone, but this happy group is extremely versatile and fun-loving. Their motto is "Service always comes with a smiling face," and they actually live up to it! Others would do well to emulate them. They have told me more than once when I've contacted them and feared I was wearing out my welcome, "Nelson, we consider you to be one of us." I could not conceive of a higher compliment. Merry Christmas, friends, and have a joyous New Year.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Use Pagemonth to Help Plan Your Holiday Shopping
Retailers started displaying decorated Christmas trees before school even began this year, and they haven't let up a bit. Christmas carols filled the aisles before Halloween, and Black Friday now begins on Thanksgiving Eve! With all the special markdowns catching your eye, how can you hope to budget for your gift buying and stick to it?
Use a Pagemonth Home Budget, available free at the bottom of our home page, to get a good sense of what you can afford to spend this year. At the bottom of our middle totals columns on each page you can see your end balance for each month as well as all others through December, to the nearest dollar, continuously updated automatically by your income and expense changes.. The bottom month totals will show you how much you will have in your checking account on December 31. If it is an amount you can accept, even after you plug in the amounts you intend to spend for holiday buying, try to aim for that number with your purchases.
But chances are good you (and I) will both succumb to the specials and bargains and markdowns between now and then, and use our debit cards when we run out of cash in the store, or if our balance drops below what we can accept without penalty, and use our charge cards to delay paying the extra debt till January or February of next year, thus fooling ouselves into believing it will be easier to pay things off then.
Instead, use your Pagemonth Home Budget to enter those charges the day you purchase them, so you can see what those totals will do to your Visa and Mastercard payments in January and February, 2014. If you are still comfortable with your numbers, then Merry Christmas! You have planned well.. But if you see next year's charges generating debts you realize you can't pay off in full by early 2014, you aren't going to have quite as much Christmas cheer to celebrate, because your credit buying will be generating as much as 18%-21% revolving interest per month on any unpaid balance you carried forward!
Enjoy the holidays fully this year. Plan your buying then stick to your plan, You'll be grateful you did heading into next year.
Use a Pagemonth Home Budget, available free at the bottom of our home page, to get a good sense of what you can afford to spend this year. At the bottom of our middle totals columns on each page you can see your end balance for each month as well as all others through December, to the nearest dollar, continuously updated automatically by your income and expense changes.. The bottom month totals will show you how much you will have in your checking account on December 31. If it is an amount you can accept, even after you plug in the amounts you intend to spend for holiday buying, try to aim for that number with your purchases.
But chances are good you (and I) will both succumb to the specials and bargains and markdowns between now and then, and use our debit cards when we run out of cash in the store, or if our balance drops below what we can accept without penalty, and use our charge cards to delay paying the extra debt till January or February of next year, thus fooling ouselves into believing it will be easier to pay things off then.
Instead, use your Pagemonth Home Budget to enter those charges the day you purchase them, so you can see what those totals will do to your Visa and Mastercard payments in January and February, 2014. If you are still comfortable with your numbers, then Merry Christmas! You have planned well.. But if you see next year's charges generating debts you realize you can't pay off in full by early 2014, you aren't going to have quite as much Christmas cheer to celebrate, because your credit buying will be generating as much as 18%-21% revolving interest per month on any unpaid balance you carried forward!
Enjoy the holidays fully this year. Plan your buying then stick to your plan, You'll be grateful you did heading into next year.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Tricks of the Trade
I have said everything here in earlier posts, but these suggestions bear repeating:
When projecting a new budget, List Regular Expense estimates to the nearest ten dollar average. It helps to locate them visually, Thus, if the monthly phone bill average is $38.73, project it as $40 until it becomes specified. The same goes for water, electricity, cable, and other utilities. Mortgage or rent payments, however, will normally be specific, so enter them exactly.
Nonvariable and contracted amounts such as loan payments or auto payments are normally specified to the penny,
The principle here is that future amounts, both income and expenses, aren't often exact. They are estimates until they become known. So keep them rounded on both left and right sides till then. It makes them easier to locate and edit.
For the same reason, list Regular Income and Regular Expenses in the same order and numbering vertically. The left, Cashflow side will break down each category or item of income or expense chronologically, so where each appears will depend on days of the week and weeks in the month, when banks are open and other matters. But ease of visual location and referencing from one side to the other still applies,
I like to consider each year in thirds, for my planning. January through April, May through August, and September through December works for me. The summer months have their own character and needs such as vacation planning or possibly moving, but September through April is the school year, when people tend not to switch their lives around so much.
The most active third for budgeting is September through December, I believe, when stores already put out reminders and merchandise for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas buying. The least active is winter into spring, when budgets often have their best chance to catch up and expenses are at the most stable part of the year.
Begin 2014 planning now. Clean up a 2013 budget or use a new template, but create your 2014 budget now, and save it as "budget14" or other clear identifier. Keep it off your desktop except to update it so you won't mix its data with budget13 data. Update it over the next three months as you learn new information, but always save it in a separate, safe location. That way you will be able to seamlessly transition from the end of this year to the beginning of next year.
Once 2014 begins, put your budget13 in My Documents with previous years, keep budget14 on the desktop, and bring up budget13 only to update it through January till revisions end, then print a final copy and bind it for reference.
There are several principles involved here, but the main one is to keep only the current working year's icon on the desktop.
When projecting a new budget, List Regular Expense estimates to the nearest ten dollar average. It helps to locate them visually, Thus, if the monthly phone bill average is $38.73, project it as $40 until it becomes specified. The same goes for water, electricity, cable, and other utilities. Mortgage or rent payments, however, will normally be specific, so enter them exactly.
Nonvariable and contracted amounts such as loan payments or auto payments are normally specified to the penny,
The principle here is that future amounts, both income and expenses, aren't often exact. They are estimates until they become known. So keep them rounded on both left and right sides till then. It makes them easier to locate and edit.
For the same reason, list Regular Income and Regular Expenses in the same order and numbering vertically. The left, Cashflow side will break down each category or item of income or expense chronologically, so where each appears will depend on days of the week and weeks in the month, when banks are open and other matters. But ease of visual location and referencing from one side to the other still applies,
I like to consider each year in thirds, for my planning. January through April, May through August, and September through December works for me. The summer months have their own character and needs such as vacation planning or possibly moving, but September through April is the school year, when people tend not to switch their lives around so much.
The most active third for budgeting is September through December, I believe, when stores already put out reminders and merchandise for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas buying. The least active is winter into spring, when budgets often have their best chance to catch up and expenses are at the most stable part of the year.
Begin 2014 planning now. Clean up a 2013 budget or use a new template, but create your 2014 budget now, and save it as "budget14" or other clear identifier. Keep it off your desktop except to update it so you won't mix its data with budget13 data. Update it over the next three months as you learn new information, but always save it in a separate, safe location. That way you will be able to seamlessly transition from the end of this year to the beginning of next year.
Once 2014 begins, put your budget13 in My Documents with previous years, keep budget14 on the desktop, and bring up budget13 only to update it through January till revisions end, then print a final copy and bind it for reference.
There are several principles involved here, but the main one is to keep only the current working year's icon on the desktop.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Estimates, Adjustments, Commitments, Actualities, and Records
Budget amounts almost never remain unchanged from the time they first appear till the time they last appear as a locked-in number-- often not finalized until a new calendar year is weeks or even months underway.
They begin as budgeted estimates for a new budget year, whether estimated income, estimated expenses, or estimated charges. By their very nature they are based on the future, all of them. But they are also based on the best knowledge available at the time they are created, For example, if a car loan payable monthly is due to be paid off in September, the user wouldn't need to schedule its paynent estimates on through December. Cars, furniture, and other big ticket items with monthly payments as well as home mortgage loans provide the user with the most accurate estimates of future costs.
Estimates of income likewise are based on current knowledge as well as past experience averages. Takehome net paychecks. for example, can be estimated into a new year budget as a continuing expectation if the user expects to continue in the same job with the same benefits and deductions. If, however, he knows of impending raises, promotion, or other basis for adjustment, new year estimates need to be refined taking these into account.
Another important consideration in setting up a new year budget is the dates users need to schedule payments and can expect to receive regularly-scheduled paychecks. Some months, for example, have five Fridays where most have only four, so Friday paychecks will need adjustment for the extra, third paycheck in those months. It is easy to appreciate that any new year budget needs to be set up with a good annual calendar in one hand, such as those found on the back of checking account registers.
Credit card payments, like mortgage payments, need to be scheduled each month on the last day certain to be received and credited before incurring added interest charges--usually at least 3-5 days before the due date if paid by bank online payment. even sooner if paid by mail. A week in advance is usually a safe bet.
Another considation in setting up estimates is rounding amounts. Since the user is dealing with numbers which are almost certain to change significantly in any case, it is helpful to avoid penny accuracy and go with large, whole numbers that are expected to be close to reality, then refine them as actual numbers begin to replace estimates over a few months' time.
Thus, if the power bill average average monthly paymemt in 2013 is $273.46, use $275 or better yet, $280 for the estimate setting it up in 2014, The rounding will help it stand out to the eye as an estimated amount when you're scheduling it to be paid on such and such a date, and help to locate it across the cashflow/budget sides until it becomes an exact, to-the-penny known amount.
At that point the amount is no longer an estimate. But it isn't yet a realized, paid sum yet either. It is now an adjustment, and because it is still scheduled to happen in a future time, is still subject to revision. Until it is actually paid or earned, it can't be classified as a commitment.
So when does a particular budgeted amount become an actual, unchangeable figure? Pagemonth Home Budgets are designed to treat a number differently through its evolution by the use of decimal position, location, and checkmarks, (forward slashes /)
A number doesn't get exact penny treatment till it becomes an adjustment or commitment. And it doesn't get a checkmark to its right until it becomes an actuality--in other words, writing the check or scheduling it for online payment is one thing. Mailing the check or confirming that an amount has been made by the bank elevates the number to a commitment. But only confirming that the amount has been received and cashed by the recipient rates a checkmark!
All that may seem needless quibbling over straws, but trust me, it is not. Until any amount, whether income, expense, or charge, passes the test of being confirmed by the bank at each phase (and reconciled by the user's statement records even beyond that!), any checkmark is premature.
When we get our finalized charge statement either online or by mail, we can check off everything on it to the right of entries, And in doing so we can visually spot items that still remain to be paid on the next one, or found by backtracking on a previous one.
And when we receive our finalized checking account statement either online or by mail, we can check off each item on it to the right of entries, and again, easily spot discrepancies if any have occurred. The checked entry says the amount is now a record of actual experience, and says it not only to the computer screen workspace and spreadsheet file for the year, but also to the printed month pages and end-of-year summary page that follows them sometime by the end of January the following year.
At that point I print and bind my final hard copy of the previous year, ready for reference as I study previous experience and set up my next year's budget amounts, prepare for birthdays and holidays, taxes, vacations and trips to come.
Done in this way from rough estimate to bound record, your Pagemonth Home Budget will serve you well throughout each year.
They begin as budgeted estimates for a new budget year, whether estimated income, estimated expenses, or estimated charges. By their very nature they are based on the future, all of them. But they are also based on the best knowledge available at the time they are created, For example, if a car loan payable monthly is due to be paid off in September, the user wouldn't need to schedule its paynent estimates on through December. Cars, furniture, and other big ticket items with monthly payments as well as home mortgage loans provide the user with the most accurate estimates of future costs.
Estimates of income likewise are based on current knowledge as well as past experience averages. Takehome net paychecks. for example, can be estimated into a new year budget as a continuing expectation if the user expects to continue in the same job with the same benefits and deductions. If, however, he knows of impending raises, promotion, or other basis for adjustment, new year estimates need to be refined taking these into account.
Another important consideration in setting up a new year budget is the dates users need to schedule payments and can expect to receive regularly-scheduled paychecks. Some months, for example, have five Fridays where most have only four, so Friday paychecks will need adjustment for the extra, third paycheck in those months. It is easy to appreciate that any new year budget needs to be set up with a good annual calendar in one hand, such as those found on the back of checking account registers.
Credit card payments, like mortgage payments, need to be scheduled each month on the last day certain to be received and credited before incurring added interest charges--usually at least 3-5 days before the due date if paid by bank online payment. even sooner if paid by mail. A week in advance is usually a safe bet.
Another considation in setting up estimates is rounding amounts. Since the user is dealing with numbers which are almost certain to change significantly in any case, it is helpful to avoid penny accuracy and go with large, whole numbers that are expected to be close to reality, then refine them as actual numbers begin to replace estimates over a few months' time.
Thus, if the power bill average average monthly paymemt in 2013 is $273.46, use $275 or better yet, $280 for the estimate setting it up in 2014, The rounding will help it stand out to the eye as an estimated amount when you're scheduling it to be paid on such and such a date, and help to locate it across the cashflow/budget sides until it becomes an exact, to-the-penny known amount.
At that point the amount is no longer an estimate. But it isn't yet a realized, paid sum yet either. It is now an adjustment, and because it is still scheduled to happen in a future time, is still subject to revision. Until it is actually paid or earned, it can't be classified as a commitment.
So when does a particular budgeted amount become an actual, unchangeable figure? Pagemonth Home Budgets are designed to treat a number differently through its evolution by the use of decimal position, location, and checkmarks, (forward slashes /)
A number doesn't get exact penny treatment till it becomes an adjustment or commitment. And it doesn't get a checkmark to its right until it becomes an actuality--in other words, writing the check or scheduling it for online payment is one thing. Mailing the check or confirming that an amount has been made by the bank elevates the number to a commitment. But only confirming that the amount has been received and cashed by the recipient rates a checkmark!
All that may seem needless quibbling over straws, but trust me, it is not. Until any amount, whether income, expense, or charge, passes the test of being confirmed by the bank at each phase (and reconciled by the user's statement records even beyond that!), any checkmark is premature.
When we get our finalized charge statement either online or by mail, we can check off everything on it to the right of entries, And in doing so we can visually spot items that still remain to be paid on the next one, or found by backtracking on a previous one.
And when we receive our finalized checking account statement either online or by mail, we can check off each item on it to the right of entries, and again, easily spot discrepancies if any have occurred. The checked entry says the amount is now a record of actual experience, and says it not only to the computer screen workspace and spreadsheet file for the year, but also to the printed month pages and end-of-year summary page that follows them sometime by the end of January the following year.
At that point I print and bind my final hard copy of the previous year, ready for reference as I study previous experience and set up my next year's budget amounts, prepare for birthdays and holidays, taxes, vacations and trips to come.
Done in this way from rough estimate to bound record, your Pagemonth Home Budget will serve you well throughout each year.
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