SETTING GOALS FOR 2023! Have you set your goals for 2023? If not, now is the time. Setting goals is not just thinking to yourself what you would like during the next 12 months. Setting goals is a process. Make a list of things you would like to accomplish next year.  Group the list into categories, say, family, business, finance, etc. There is no finite list of categories, it all depends on what you want to do. For each category, work your items into 1 – 3 goals. Make sure you do not have more than 10 [...]

BUDGET 2023! Last week I asked if you had set you goals for 2023.  Now you have had a week to complete the goals, but my next question is if you have set a budget for 2023?  Even if you have not set budget for the whole year, did you set budget for January 2023? Just as setting goals, creating a budget is a process.  In fact, there are several ways to create the budget, but here is a process that is not overly complicated and easy if you have never done this before.   Your budget is essentially a list of expected income [...]

EMERGENCY AND CONTIGNENCY In the previous posts on finance, we have spoken about goal setting and budgets, and I certainly hope you did both your goals for 2023, and January, and that you did your budget for both as well.   When we start living by our budgets it is a learning process.  At first, our cost estimate may be too low and we have too high expectations about our income.  However, if we have good data, and, or if we are patient and work our budget consciously, reviewing every week and going through the whole process every month, we do become better [...]