Financial Wellness Minute: Budget Basics

Get smarter about your money with this Financial Wellness Minute. I'm Patrick Voigt, office manager at Mid Minnesota Federal Credit Union in Detroit Lakes. Today, we are talking about budgeting basics. The word budget is not glamorous, but we all need to know where our hard earned money really goes. Two latte's or ten latte's in the month makes a difference at the end of the month if we are positive or negative in our checking account. A simple starting point is:

1. Review your bank and credit card statements and highlight what you spent on necessities. Be honest with yourself, mortgage or rent, utilities, insurance, gas and groceries. This way you know what needs to be covered each month.
2. Now look at all the other expenses you paid out and those are the areas where you need to make hard decisions to cut back on.
3. Next step is pay yourself first and put money into a savings account which can start your rainy day fund.
4. Revisit your budget to assure you are staying on target as life changes.

Once you have paid yourself and started to save. You may be able to afford a latte or two during the month. Want to know more about budgeting or have a weekly financial wellness tip sent to you? Sign up below or, contact your local Mid Minnesota Federal Credit Union Office. Sign Up for a Weekly Financial Wellness Tip Mid Minnesota Federal Credit Union is federally insured by the NCUA and we are an Equal Housing Lender.