COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL
C H A P T E R 14
THE BEAUTY OFTHE BUDGET
PRODUCT PREVIEW
Chapter Resources: There are many online money management programs and mobile apps that make it easy to create and maintain a personal budget. Personal Capital, Mint, Spending Tracker, Level Money, Good Budget, Budget Planner Learnvest, Spendbook, and Home Budget with Sync Wally are just a few . Mymoney.gov has useful budget templates, lots of information about money and credit, and links to Federal Trade Commission consumer information. Learning Goals By the end of this chapter you will be able to: • Explain the wealth-preserving benefits of a personal budget • Tell how to itemize a budget • Create a basic personal budget • Summarize the financial benefits of developing a personal budget habit • (Opt.) Critique a personal budget mobile app or website • (Opt.) Summarize the federal budget deficit dispute and Balanced Budget Amendment
A ny athlete knows that a good game plan is key to winning. A game plan is a carefully planned and designed set of strategies to obtain and preserve a lead. Without one, a team is essentially just a bunch of people running around a field or court hoping to win. Is there a game plan for preserving wealth? What would it be? Just as a game plan is an essential part of a winning game strategy, the seemingly mundane personal budget is a powerful part of a winning financial strategy. In this chapter, we continue with the theme of preserving and protecting wealth. The topic? The budget, of course! Most people have limited financial resources. It’s an unfortunate reality of life. Yet many proceed blissfully unaware of these limitations, living in a financial fantasy- land. The beauty of a budget is that it provides a regular dose of reality necessary to build a winning financial game plan and preserve a financial lead.
263
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs