Review Steps to Get a Handle on Debt
Review
If you’ve been keeping up, let’s review what we’ve done to date.
- We continue to carry our pocket notebook and make entries for every purchase we make.
- All debt has been recorded and sorted by interest rate and dollar amount.
- A list has been created showing all income sources as well as a prioritized list of expenses.
Next steps
You have accumulated a lot of information. Your list shows exactly how much money you have coming in and how much is going out. This monthly view is paramount to creating a budget and planning how to attack that debt.
Our next steps will be using a spreadsheet. In my short post Quick Info on Spreadsheets, there was a link to some free spreadsheet options. There is of course MS excel as well. I’d like you to spend some time reviewing the different spreadsheets and determining which is right for you. Our next steps will include creating our budget and I’d actually like you to do it manually. The point of doing it manually is that it becomes more personal, more real. I know that sounds silly, but when you’re just starting out, these exercises will give you skin in the game. It’s your creation and you’ll be the one to use it every month. You’ll eventually get ideas on how you’d like to use it, expand it, etc.
Note:
Most spreadsheet programs have predefined templates. These are meant to get your spreadsheet up and running quickly with a predefined format. Some of these templates are quite good, but please start your budget spreadsheet manually for the reasons stated above. You can always switch it up later once you’ve started to execute your plan and are a lot more comfortable.