Sit down and determine your fixed and variable expenses and use a simple
budget worksheet like this one from personal finance expert, Ellie Kay.
Not exact matches
But if you use an online tool
like Fidelity's Retirement Income Planner or Vanguard's Retirement Expenses
Worksheet — both of which you'll find in the Retirement Income section of Real Deal Retirement's Retirement Toolbox — you'll find it easier to factor in the inevitable changes into your
budget as you age.
Update 10/5/2017: I've added a Help
worksheet that provides examples transactions for things
like transfers between accounts, credit card payments, split transactions, allocations to savings, and
budgeting for future expenses
like quarterly insurance or tax payments.
There are a variety of ways you can create such a
budget, but I think most people would be best served by revving up an online
budget tool
like BlackRock's Retirement Expense
Worksheet.
Like my original Money Management template, you can customize
budget categories and track multiple accounts, but this version includes everything in a single
worksheet and uses fewer
budget categories.
The best way to find expenses you can eliminate or slim down is to rev up a good online
budget calculator like the Retirement Budget Worksheet within Fidelity's Retirement Income Planner
budget calculator
like the Retirement
Budget Worksheet within Fidelity's Retirement Income Planner
Budget Worksheet within Fidelity's Retirement Income Planner tool.
An online
budgeting tool
like BlackRock's Retirement Expense
Worksheet can help.
The best way to do that is by going to an online
budgeting tool
like BlackRock's Retirement Expense
Worksheet, which lists upwards of 50 separate expenditures in categories ranging from household and transportation costs to medical and discretionary expenses.
Once you've printed out your own chart
like the one here (Ellie Kay's
Budget Worksheet), take the following steps:
To get a handle on what your post-career expense might be, think seriously about the sort of lifestyle you expect to live in retirement and then do a retirement
budget by revving up a tool
like BlackRock's Retirement Expense
Worksheet, which allows you to enter more than 50 separate expense items in eight categories to estimate your annual outlays in retirement.
Subscribing gives you access to free travel resources
like trip planning
worksheets and
budget templates.
Something
like a student debt payoff calculator or a retirement planner or even just a basic
budget worksheet would go a long way towards increasing financial literacy.