Why bother with a personal budget?

Hello! And welcome to the inaugural posting to the Personal Budget Blog. I plan on updating this blog several times a week.

My name is Adam Speed and I LOVE personal budgeting. Ok, maybe love is too strong a word. But I consider myself to be the unofficial personal budgeting spokesman, promoter, and flat out “preach it from the corner” guy. The reason for this is that budgeting made such a huge difference in my financial life. I was in debt and tried everything to get out of debt. Loans, debt consolidators, debt counseling, book, seminars, financial advisors, I tried everything and nothing worked for me. I wanted an easy fix and I really wanted someone to do it for me. It sounds kind of funny as I type this, but this is what I thought (and millions out there think just like this).

Well, it wasn’t until I learned one single concept that I finally “GOT IT!”. It was SOOO simple in principle but SOOO difficult in practice. And the secret is……………

“Spend LESS than you make!”

It really is simple when you think about it but very difficult when it comes down to actually doing it. And there is a reason it is difficult. It is because in the modern technological society we live in today it is almost impossible to know where you money is and how much you have left to spend. Today we live in a near "cash less" society. Using debit cards, credit cards, automatic deposits, and wire transfers we rarely even see our money. It's easier than ever to spend, spend, spend!

How can I spend less than I make if I don’t have any idea how much I have left? This is why most Americans spend 10% more than they make each month. AMAZING!

So I have a website dedicated to personal budgeting located at http://www.personalfinancebudgeting.com. Check it out if you have any specific questions or need an article on a specific topic. There is also a very active personal budgeting forum where you can post your questions and get answers quickly.