Importance of Budget Planner

In a survey done in 2008, it was reported that only about 28% of Malaysians maintain a monthly budget. Either you are extremely rich that you see no point in keeping track of your expenses or you do not have any money or income to keep track of in the first place. Some may have no desire whatsoever to do it. However most of us fall somewhere in the middle rung, meaning we are not so rich as to completely disregard where our money is going.

People normally make excuses when it comes to doing a budget planner. Granted, it may be tedious, some of us feel that our income is negligible to warrant a budget planner. Well, if you do not know where your money is going and yet find it cumbersome to start budgeting, then read this. A budget planner helps you plan your day to day expenses. The fact is everyone spends money daily such as buying food, transportation, phone calls, turning on electricity and so on. Having a budget planner helps in the following ways:

* It shows your spending pattern. Maybe you have been spending 20% of your income on the lottery and you did not realize it yet.
* Assist you in doing proper allocation of your money. For example, 10% on food, 15% on savings, 10% on debt repayment, etc.
* It stops you from spending money you do not have. Who knows, maybe you have been trying to live a RM100,000 lifestyle on a RM50,000
annual income.
* Assist you in your debt-repayment plan.
* Assist you in achieving your financial goals faster.

A budget planner is really an important part of your financial planning. You cannot simply say you want to save 20% of your income when you do not have the amount to save in the first place. If you want to know whether you have or not, start to plan now. Go to the internet and type in "budget planner" or "free budget software" and you will get free samples of it.

Basically, you will be tracking your monthly income, your day to day spending, your big expenses (e.g. loans, utility bills, insurance, tax, etc.) and knowing your balance at the end of the month, positive or negative cashflow. Once you do this and keep doing it as part of your financial planning, you will stop asking the question "Where did all my money go?"