Personal Finance Lesson Plans Broken Down

If you were to take a personal finance class, you would be given several lesson plans that are fairly common amongst all personal finance experts. These lesson plans help the average person get a handle on their spending, they allow them to see their spending habits, and they allow them to always know how much they have in their bank accounts at any given time. These personal finance lesson plans are easy to follow and anyone can do them. The problem is that many people don’t take the time to follow these personal finance lesson plans and therefore, have no idea how much they have in their accounts, they don’t know where their money goes and they wonder why they’re always broke or why they continuously overdraft their accounts. Follow these simple to follow lesson plans and finally get control of your money.

Write Everything Down

The most important personal finance lesson plan that all experts will tell you is to write every expenditure down. Whether you record them in your checkbook, in a notebook, whether you have a spreadsheet or you have a finance computer program; whatever you use to record the transactions, you must write everything down. This allows you to see your spending habits, it allows you to properly balance your accounts and it will hopefully curb your spending once you see all your transactions written down in black and white. This personal finance lesson plan makes it painfully obvious where your money is going and therefore, you’re less likely to overspend.

Bills Vs. Income

Another very important personal finance lesson plan that is common to most experts is to write down all your bills and add them up. By bills, this could mean your water and gas bill, your electric bill, your rent or mortgage, your car payment, your weekly or monthly gasoline expenditures and even your grocery bills. You can even include eating out if this is something that is routine for you. Basically, write down everything you spend on a monthly basis and add the amounts up. Then, in another column, write down all your income. This could be income from your job, any side jobs you may do, child support, or any other avenues of income that you receive on a regular, monthly basis. Then, subtract your bills total from your income total. If you get a negative number, something needs to change. You should always have money left over after you pay your bills so that you have money to save.

Pay Yourself First

Probably the most common personal finance lesson plan that you’ll hear from the experts is that you should pay yourself just as if it were a regular bill every month. This means putting a little into savings just like you were paying your car payment, for example. After a while, your savings will add up quicker than you ever imagined and that’s how you get ahead in that’s how you get complete control over your finances.