Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new YEAR. Today we will be diving in head first into my January 2021 budget as well as ALL of my budgeting strategies.
I don’t know about you, but I feel like the 2021/new year reset was more than necessary. Even though everyday we get the chance to start over, the way 2020 unfolded kind of made it hard to think of new beginnings. Having a new year gives us opportunity to get into the fresh mindset allowing us to hit pause and re-start. One of my goals for this year is to be more organized. Part of this is to retake my hobbies without too much pressure. That includes posting on the blog, for now at least 2x per month.
To start this year on the right foot I want to continue evolving into my FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) journey. And that includes monthly budgets. I decided to share this with you all as I believe it can be helpful for those of you who are on the same boat. Back in 2020 I started the journey to be better with my money. I started by doing a budget and playing with it monthly. Eventually I figured out how this was benefitting my life and it became FUN. Now every month I look forward to my financial planning time.
My January 2021 Budget
Being completely honest with you my monthly budgets are *kind of* boring because they don’t change much. As you can see in my January 2021 budget my fixed expenses are not very impressive. Me and my husband divide shared expenses 50/50 and that means I only pay for rent and the occasional dinner date. But it is still important to look at the WHOLE budget every month. Why? Well, because sometimes we get too comfortable and overspend. Overspending can lead to having to modify savings, investments, or even not being able to meet your required expenses (fixed expenses on the budget).
Personally I like to SEE things clearly. Having a strict budget has helped me to find areas where I can control spending so I can re-direct that money into savings. Some of my other goals for 2021 include trying to save more as well as investing more. But we will dive deeper into my goals in the next post.
You CAN get your hands on my budget template –> HERE
You-Need-A-Budget (YNAB)
In addition to a template I’ve also used YNAB (*affiliate link that gives YOU 1 free month*). It is a website/app that allows to to have a budget that is easily visualized and modified. They have an incredible amount of educational resources to help you learn about basic budgeting and why it’s important. They have EVERYTHING. I love the way Graham Stephen explained what it is. It’s as if Mint and Personal Capital had a baby. In their system you can link all of your accounts to have updated balances all the time. This in turn allows you to see exactly how much money you have available to budget and look for areas of improvement.
We have had YNAB since May 2020 and I like it but I now feel like I have evolved from such a simple budget into more robust financial planning. This is why I now use a different template/method. I have an excel document that hosts my Cashflow Budget.
Converting to cashflow
Once I was comfortable with my budgeting skills, I wanted MORE. For those of you that don’t know this I am a list/chart making freak. I love having that organization to be able to see everything that I am working on/need to do. That is when my husband made a cashflow document to be able to SEE our money strategy un until we move in 2022. I NEEDED it! Once he sent it to me I began modifying it to fit my needs and future plans.
That is how this whole journey became my monthly obsession. By having my cashflow budgeting chart I could play with the numbers and SEE how far I could go. I figured if I was better about saving, investing, and paying off debt. This was the drive force behind everything I accomplished financially in 2020. I am so grateful to have my job and not have to worry about any hardships. But even if I had been in that situation, KNOWING my financial health so to speak, would have helped me make it through rough situations.
In addition, having a cashflow budget document helps me plan for the future by showing me what the possibilities will be.
Take control of your financial life
2020 was an amazing year for me in terms of personal and financial goals. I opened a Roth IRA retirement account, paid off 1 of my student loans, saved over $4,000, and more. I was also able to help friends and my husband increase their savings and better manage their money. For this reason I decided to CREATE a Step-by-Step guide to help YOU gain control of your financial life and begin your own journey. This is a 30+ page workbook that hosts printable templates as well as links to amazing articles filled with valuable information.
Maybe you don’t want to FIRE, and that is perfectly fine. But even if you don’t want to embark on that particular journey taking control of your finances will CHANGE your life. The peace of mind that you know you are good or how you can get to that point is incredible. So if you are wanting to start 2021 on the right foot and begin a financial journey of your own I invite you to grab my workbook and just START. Take this as your sign to begin your January 2021 budget
You CAN get your hands on my Financial Planning Workbook –> HERE
* If you want me to write/make a video about my Roth IRA experience let me know in the comments.
ARE YOU EMBRACING A FINANCIAL JOURNEY IN 2021? LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS WHAT IS YOUR FINANCIAL GOAL FOR THIS YEAR!
XOXO
Jani V
*Disclaimer: This is NOT a sponsored post. Some links are affiliate links which means for every click or purchase through these links I get a small commission, this does not influence the price you pay for any item at all, it just helps support and produce content for this blog. Full disclosure statement HERE
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Love the post! Thank you for sharing!