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What’s missing from the title?  You guessed it, Action! Without action, nothing would get done. I’ve mentioned this a lot, but you can have the best plan or program in the world, but if you don’t take action, it’s worthless. 

Have you ever made a detailed plan for something but never took action on it?  How did it feel to pour all of that effort into a project or trip only for it to not work out?  Pretty disappointing right?  Have you ever known anyone who got excited about getting healthy and fit, joined a gym and never went? Maybe you are that person.  Did joining the health club make you healthy or did going and working out make you healthy.  Of course we all know that just joining a gym won't get us in shape.  We have to take action and workout to get the results we need or want.

It's the same process for our money.  We can have the best budgeting spreadsheets or software, but if we never take action, it's useless to us and we won’t win with money. Wouldn’t it be nice if we put together a budget, our money miraculously got organized and we had everything we wanted?  But that would be like joining the gym, not going, and expecting to get healthy and fit.  It always takes ACTION to achieve our goals, no matter what area of life.

When we budget, we must take into consideration what works for us.  If you won’t do the work, it’s not worth it.  Are you a software person, a spreadsheet person, or a pencil and paper person? Will having a lot of categories and subcategories in your budget help and motivate you or hinder you from progress? Your budget should make sense to you, be simple enough to not just understand but get behind, and motivate you to take action and stick with it. If it doesn't do those things, either you need to change or the budget needs to change. Do what works for you to take action because that's the only way you'll win with money.  Sitting there hoping and wishing your finances will be in check and healthy isn't good enough.  Action is required.  

Here are some steps to creating a budget:

1. Assess whether you want to use paper, a spreadsheet, or software (if software, do some research and find the one that works best for you).  If you want to see the one I use, you can learn more HERE
2. Go through your statements for the last few months and see where you spend your money
3. Create Categories and Line Items in your budget
4. Allocate a certain amount of money to each line item (estimate if you don’t know how much you spend on that line item)
5. Take your Income (at the top of the page) and subtract all of your line items from that number.  If you have leftover, assign those dollars to a line item you want to contribute to.  If you are negative, you need to adjust line items so you aren’t negative
6. Match your budget to your values - in other words, put your money into things that are important to you
7. If you are a beginner budgeter, start out with fewer categories and line items.  If it’s too complex, you won’t stick to it
8. Have a line item for pocket money (miscellaneous items), and personal development - because you always want to invest in yourself

Obviously there is more than this to creating a successful budget, but if you follow these basic steps, you’ll be on your way to winning with money in a few months so take action now!