You might not feel like you have a firm grasp on your finances because you might be employing a budgeting strategy that doesn’t work. While not everyone requires a precise, balanced budget, having a budgeting approach or template is crucial if you want to understand where your money goes each month. There are many different budgeting frameworks, including the 70-20-10 budget.
What is the 70-20-10 budget?
The 70-20-10 budget gives a loose budgeting approach that streamlines what may be a challenging procedure, similar to other budgeting principles such as the 50-30-20 rule. Your post-tax income is into three categories by the 70-20-10 budgeting rule: monthly expenses, savings, debt repayment, and charitable contributions.
Make 70:20:10 your rule
The simplicity of the 70:20:10 rule is one of its significant features. Distribute your funds among them. It’s done. However, the amount of money it may earn you is enormous. As you pay off your debts and get your bills under control, you acquire a better understanding of your finances and can start building a healthy savings account & investment options.
Spending accounts for 70% of income
You would first need to be able to survive on 70% of your income. 70 percent of your take-home earnings, or net income after taxes, to be precise. Therefore, you must include all of your needs in this area and any expensive extras.
Once you know your weekly or monthly take-home pay, you may use basic algebra to determine what 70% of that amount would be. You must keep all of your living expenditures under that amount.
Set aside 20% for investments and savings
According to the 70-20-10 budget, you should save or invest 20% of your income. If you don’t already have one, you can contribute some of your income to an emergency fund or use a high-yield checking account to benefit from compound interest or power of compounding. This not only ensures that you will have money when you need it, but it also increases your overall income.
Use the remaining 10% for charitable contributions or debt reduction
The remaining ten percent of your budget is allocated to charitable giving or debt repayment. This debt category applies to obligations that aren’t immediately due, such as making further student loans or medical debt payments. On the other hand, minimum fees, such as those for credit card debt or auto loans, typically fit within your monthly expenses.
How do you ‘bucket’ your money?
The 70:20:10 guideline and bucketing your money are complementary budgeting strategies that require dividing your funds among certain uses. Using your bank accounts for bucketing might be beneficial because most today offer simple internet access to monitor your balance and transaction history.
It’s time to fill your buckets once you’ve decided on a bank and have everything set up. The simplest method to put the concept into practise is to set up recurring transfers from the account into which your money is paid to top up each of your distinct buckets. If you set this up with online banking, you could be less likely to manually forget to transfer the funds each pay period. Doing this can ensure that the money is saved in your buckets before you need it.
Conclusion
By dividing your money into these predetermined categories, you may better manage your daily expenditures, stay on top of your debt, and have the ability to accumulate savings. The 70:20:10 guideline can be complemented by the budgeting strategy known as bucketing, which divides your money into many accounts, each with a specific function, to help you keep track of where you might be overpaying.
