1. Management Tools

2. Tools for Meeting Your goals
Budget or Spending Plan
Reserve Account
Tracking system
Technique for checking
Making sure it is balanced
Emergency Fund (savings)
Credit Reports

3. Spending Plan
Budgets are a type of plan for how we use money to meet goals that we agree on
Speaking of agreeing on how we spend….
lets play a game

4. Discussion
Even though this activity was just a game, it shows what things are important to you.
Does your style match other members of the family?
Success depends on agreement.
How can you work out the balance?

5. Developing a Spending Plan
Let’s look at a few spending plan tool:
Fact sheet:
The same budget set up in Excel

6. Reserve Account A critical component of the plan
The part of the budget that is already committed to other expenses during another month
Set it aside so it is out of reach
Separate account
Prepaid debit cards
Do not check balance often because it can be tempting

7. Tracking As with any plan we need to see how well we are doing
There are several ways to do this
Check register
Phone App like mint,everydollar, expensify
Computer program like quicken or quickbooks
Pen and paper
Track for at least (3 months)

8. Balancing
There are several areas where balancing is important to finances
Tracking expenses will allow us to balance what we thought we would spend with what we really spend
Tracking expenses will allow us to balance our checking account

9. Reconciling a Bank Account
To bring into agreement
Term often used in relationships
For finances it means agreement between what we think we are spending and what is actually being spent

10. What needs to be Balanced?
Individual records (check register, phone app for tracking expenses, etc.)
Bank statements (online or paper)

11. Balanced Checking Account Barriers/Solutions
Time
Make it a priority
Don’t know where to start
Determine a beginning balance
More than 1 person makes transactions on account
Communication & common commitment are key
Not good at math
Invest in a small calculator
Don’t understand how to keep register

12. Keep it Simple Record every transaction you make—when you make it!
Checks
ATM Withdrawals
Debit Card Purchases
Automatic Payments/EFT Electronic Funds Transfer
Bank Charges/Service Fees
Deposits (pay checks, interest)

13. Use the Information gathered through tracking to:
Your fixed expenses will be the same every month (car, house, cell phone)
Flexible expenses may vary every month (electric, gas, entertainment) use an average to budget
Go back and evaluate your spending plan
Decide if your income and expenses are in line
Make changes and adjustments

14. Using Your Toolbox
All of these tools can be used together to build toward success
The spending plan and tracking will help with decisions about how money matters need to be handled
There is one more tool that we will talk about later; the credit report

15. Questions and Comments