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Wealth Tip # 2 Budget – Building the Walls

 

Are you ready to begin, today we will discuss your income and how to take home the most you can.

Then we will begin with a few of the essentials such as food, shelter, clothing and transportation.

 

Income

 

The best place to begin is with your income. You should know what you make? I do find that some folks don’t, which I find interesting. How could you not know!

 

As we all know the government gets their share first. I suggest that you take a look at your most recent pay stub. It will show you your gross income. Then social security and Medicare tax comes out. This will be 7.65%.

 

Then there will be federal and state withholding tax, followed by other deductions for healthcare, 401k and other items that are discretionary.

 

We do have some control over what we can bring home. We can opt out of certain employee benefit programs that are paid for by you such at life insurance, vision and dental insurance and a 401k deduction.

 

The amount of taxes withheld can also be adjusted so that you are not over withheld. You also do not want to be under withheld. I have always adjusted this to approximate my tax liabilities. I do not want to over pay or under pay, I just want to pay what I am supposed to. Remember if you are getting a large refund at the end of the year you have been over withheld and the government is using your money interest free. A tax refund is not a bonus or something the government is giving you it is your money.

See our article on Get a Pay Raise Courtesy of Uncle Sam.

 

Having that little bit extra to take home will allow you to use it to build wealth.

 

So now we have our income,

 

 

 Include the essentials – Food, shelter, clothing and transportation

 

As you begin to build your budget the first items that are absolutely necessary to be in your budget is food, clothing, shelter and transportation.

 

Why budget these first? You must eat and have shelter, if you take care of these first then you need not worry about eating and having a roof over your head.

Next is clothing because you need decent clothes for work! And transportation to get there. And the transportation does not have to be a car.

Now you can begin to see your budget come into focus! You are now telling your money what you want it to do.

If you did not get a chance to review our first articles you can find them with the links below.

 

Money Matters Wealth Tip #1 Budget Foundation

Money Matters Preview Net Worth

Other articles of interest:

10 Easy Steps to Creating a Budget that will put you on the path to Financial Independence

Wealth Tip #3 Budget – Tracking will be the next article.

So what are you waiting for? Need help getting started, Grab our FREE budget tools to help you along on this very important journey.

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