Making a budget
One of the first things you do when you begin making money is to write out a budget. This works best when you begin having a steady flow of income. It is kind of hard to budget money when you only receive a small cash gift once or twice a year. Maybe your parents give you an allowance and that is something you can work with.
Tithe
Your first choice should be to put some aside for tithe. This is one of the best practices to put into place now when you are young. It’s about giving God the first portion of what He ‘s given to you and allowing Him to provide for your needs out of faith. It is a simple concept but one of the toughest to live out. I can give many personal testimonies of when we did not tithe each week and how financially broke we were from it. We would experience hardship after hardship and it seems that things always broke. When we started tithing on a regular basis and it became a part of “wanting” to do it, things didn’t seem to break down as much, we actually accumulated a savings, and God had blessed us in numerous financial avenues. Our base pay did not change, actually life expenses got bigger, but we still came out on top and overflowing.
Here are some Bible verse to read further on tithing, I encourage you to read them and study them further in depth.
- Malachi 3:8-10
- 2 Corinthians 9:7
- Proverbs 3:9
- Luke 21:1-4
Expenses
Your next thing to list will be your expenses. Do you have anything that you have to regularly pay for each month? Maybe you go out each week and spend money with friends. Whatever you normally do, write it down. If you have to buy clothes, personal care items, or any type of snacks, write that down too.
Savings
You should start thinking about some short and long term savings goals. You might have to begin thinking about saving for a vehicle. You need to think about how much you can put away each month towards this. You might want to put away money towards a short term goal like a cell phone purchase. Whatever the item, you need to plan ahead. You need to set aside a set amount each month to work towards that goal. If you want to buy it in three month’s time. Take the total cost and divide it by three. Find out how much to set aside and then pay for it with cash.
Income
Lastly write down what your total income is for the month.
The difference between income and expenses should be in the positive. If it is not, then you need to do some adjusting to your expenses. You want to minimize your spending so that you can put away more into your savings. To save for future purchases.
