Personal Finance Tool Kit

[jeffrey]

If someone were to ask you to create a personal finance tool kit, what would you consider the essentials (hammer, screw driver, wrench) that should be placed in it?

[sweeps]

1. Budgeting/spending plan worksheet (with clear delineations for wants vs. needs)

[kork13]

1. Budgeting/spending plan worksheet (with clear delineations for wants vs. needs)

1a) Pocket notepad/pen to actually track spending. First to develop an accurate spending plan, then later to verify that it is being followed and that it works for you.

2) Calculator. (...i dunno, too obvious? )

[simpleyme]

worksheet to help figure out net worth

also a calculator

[mommyof4]

budget sheets
paper
pencil
calculator
Dave Ramsey's books, and/or Mary Hunt's books.

[ceejay74]

Any kind of ledger system. I used to keep a paper checkbook and my total debt and bills on post-its; then I moved to keeping draft e-mails in my Yahoo! account that I would update; now I have Excel spreadsheets in Google Documents. The last one is the best, but they all worked just fine.

The main tool is knowledge: Know your total debt. Know your take-home amounts. Know your total assets. Know the minimum you automatically put toward debt principal and toward savings/retirement, and try to figure out ways to increase those numbers.

Also, find a way to get interested if budgeting isn't your thing. I make little games--goals, challenges, etc.--that keep me focused on paying off debt and not creating any more. Reward your good behaviors with incentives.

So I guess my tools are 1. a ledger; 2. knowledge; and 3. a sense of purpose.

[scfr]

Income Source
Spending Plan
Savings Plan
Investment Strategy
Maintenance Schedule