Budget Worksheets - Learn How to Effectively Track Your Weekly and Monthly Spending

When you start working with making a household budget it is extremely important to track your spending and all your expense both on a weekly and monthly basis. Many people dread tracking their expenses and recording every receipt but this is by far the best way to gain control over your spending. There is always a huge gap between what people think they spend and what they actually spend each month. So, tracking your spending is the only way to establish a working budget.

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In order to track you spending you will need the following two budget worksheets:

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#1 Weekly Expenses Report Worksheet - On this worksheet you will record all the spending for a given week. You will want to have four copies of this worksheet for a given month. Carry it with you to record expenses or make a habit of recording expenses at the end of the day with your daily receipts. Make sure to include a description of the item, the date purchased, the amount and the expense category. You will also want to write down how you paid for the item whether by cash, check, or credit card. This will give you a very detailed report of your weekly spending.

#2 Monthly Expense Record Worksheet - After you have filled out your weekly worksheet for a given week, you will want to transfer all spending and expenses over to the monthly expense record worksheet. It is very helpful to first fill out the weekly expenses report worksheet because people forget to record certain spending when just using the monthly expense record worksheet along.

After filling out these two worksheets you will have effectively tracked your spending for the month. Using the monthly expense record worksheet, you will now have the information you need to create a working budget for next month.

Budget Worksheets - Learn How to Effectively Track Your Weekly and Monthly Spending

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Making Mortgage Payments Weekly Vs Monthly

You may want to consider making mortgage payments weekly if you want to pay your home loan off faster. By making a payment every two weeks, you can take years off of your term. You will be free from your debt much faster than if you made monthly payments.

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When you decide to make mortgage payments weekly as opposed to monthly, you end up cutting your monthly payments in half, and you pay that amount every two weeks. So if your normal payment was 00, then you would pay 0 biweekly. The reason you end up paying your home loan off sooner is because instead of making 12 payments, you are making 26 payments. With monthly payments, you would end up paying ,000 per month, whereas with biweekly payments, you would end up paying ,000 at the end of the year.

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You can also reduce the amount of time it takes to pay your loan back by using mortgage cycling. In the book "Mortgage Cycling Revealed" it explains how to do it. Basically while you are making your normal payments, you put money away and save it. When this money gets to be a large amount, you put it onto your home loan in a lump sum. There have been many people who have successfully paid their loan off in as little as ten years using this method.

Your home is a very important part of your life. Getting it paid off quickly can do a lot to take that stress off of you. When you make your mortgage payments weekly or if you use the cycling method, you can have that debt paid off faster so that you can use your money for other things. Most of us have to deal with a large loan sometime, so why not get rid of it as soon as you can?

Making Mortgage Payments Weekly Vs Monthly

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Using Weekly and Monthly Charts to Invest in Shares

A mistake many investors make is that the longest time frame they will look at when it comes to technical analysis is the daily chart. However this chart doesn't always tell the whole story and in a lot of cases it's a lot more profitable to invest in shares based on what the weekly or monthly charts are saying.

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One of the best set of indicators you can use are the exponential moving averages. I personally like to plot the 5, 20, 50 and 200 period EMAs on my charts because they are extremely useful indicators.

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They work well on the daily charts but they are even more dependable on the weekly or monthly charts. The key is to look for important EMA crossovers for a change in trend. After you get one of these crossovers you will often see the price continue to move in this direction for several weeks or months before it reverses and crosses in the opposite direction. In the meantime you can bank some significant profits.

You can use the EMA (20) crossing the EMA (50) as a good signal but I personally prefer using the EMA (5) crossing the EMA (20) as my preferred signal. As I say this works well on the daily chart alone but when you increase the time frame, you get far bigger price moves. In fact sometimes you can catch a trend that lasts several years and creates substantial profits.

You can also use the downwards crossover as either a sell signal or as an opportunity to go short of a stock. For instance if you look at the monthly chart of any of the banks, let's take Royal Bank of Scotland as an example, you will see that the EMA (5) crossed downwards through the EMA (20) in July 2007 and still hasn't crossed back upwards. In this time the share price has fallen from around 600p to just 20p. So obviously a very profitable long-term short position and it's the same with many other companies, not just the banks.

If you look at the daily charts, however, you will see that there are a lot more crossovers using the same period EMAs so you don't always capture these big gains using this time frame.

If the weekly or monthly chart is too long a time frame to use, then you should use them to identify the longer term trend if nothing else. For instance if the weekly or monthly chart is trending upwards, then you should look for buying opportunities on the daily chart.

The point is that you should always have a look at the weekly and monthly charts because they can provide you with some invaluable information (and trading opportunities). The trends on these longer term time frames can last for months, and even years in some cases.

Using Weekly and Monthly Charts to Invest in Shares

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Essential Boat Maintenance Guide - A Weekly, Monthly & Yearly Checklist

Boating maintenance is vitally important. If your car brakes down you can simply call for a tow truck. Out on the water, a breakdown can turn deadly. Proper maintenance and inspections can ensure many years of safe boating. Below is a list of weekly, monthly and yearly routine maintenance schedules.

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Weekly:

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Weekly tests should be done by the captain, before each trip out on the boat. These tests should focus on making sure the equipment needed for each voyage is working correctly. Be sure to check bilge pumps, navigation lights, bungs and washers, the steering column for stiffness and fuel level. Also make sure the radio is operating before heading out onto the water. You should also have a quick look around the boat to identify any potential problems or hazards.

Monthly:

Monthly maintenance should focus on checking engine oil levels, and other motorized equipment. Be sure to check the oil levels, monitor the ropes and lines for damage, oil the winch and check safety equipment for damage including lifejackets as well as the use by dates on flares. Give the boat a good clean and also check for any general signs of wear and tare. Inspect the blades of the propellor for damage and inspect all other electrical items such as windscreen wipers, engine tilt and anything else electrical.

Yearly:

Your motor should be serviced at least once a year or more depending on how much you use your boat. As the owner you should thoroughly inspect to exterior and interior of your vessel at least once a year. Look for cracks, chips, blistering, loose wiring, broken fittings and anything else unusual. If you cannot fix what you see be sure to raise the issue with your service agent before getting the boat serviced. Be sure to check grab rails and other fittings are secure and tightly fitted the the boats hull. Check the boats rollers to ensure they are running smoothly otherwise add grease as needed.

By abiding by these maintenance schedules, you will increase your chances of having many years of trouble free boating. Without proper maintenance you run a great risk not only to yourself but to your passengers as well. Be safe, and keep up on your maintenance and checks.

Essential Boat Maintenance Guide - A Weekly, Monthly & Yearly Checklist

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Why Should I Choose Bi-Weekly or Weekly Over Monthly Mortgage Payments

When you purchase a property and arrange a mortgage with a bank or other lending institution, one of the decisions you will make will be to decide the frequency of your mortgage payments.

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The most common options are weekly (mortgage payments are made once a week, i.e., every Friday), bi-weekly (every second Friday), monthly (the 1st day of each month) or semi-monthly (the 1st and 15th of each month).

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When you choose monthly mortgage payments, you will make one mortgage payment every month for 20 or 25 years, until your mortgage has been paid in full. For example, if you arrange a mortgage for 0,000.00 at 6% interest, you will make monthly mortgage payments of ,279.61 every month for 25 years.

Semi-monthly mortgage payments are similar to monthly mortgage payments, where you make 2 mortgage payments per month, each and every year for 25 years. In the above example, you would have semi-monthly mortgage payments of 9.80 for 25 years.

If you have any interest at all in paying off your mortgage earlier than 25 years, you might want to consider choosing bi-weekly mortgage payments instead of monthly. Most people who choose bi-weekly mortgage payments, usually have the payment coincide with when they get paid. If you get paid every second Friday, you can have your bi-weekly mortgage payment come directly out of your bank account every second Friday, as well. One obvious benefit to this is that you will always have the money in your account to make your mortgage payment.

Another benefit to this frequency choice is that is allows you to pay off your mortgage sooner rather than later. For example, if you arrange a mortgage for 0,000.00 at 6% interest, you will make bi-weekly mortgage payments of 9.80, but your will only make those payments for 21.1 years. You actually save yourself 3.9 years of mortgage payments, or approximately ,876.23!

One thing to remember, though, is that you will be making two extra mortgage payments every year. This is why choosing bi-weekly saves you so much time and money. On those months when you get three paycheques (happy day!), you actually make three mortgage payments. So, while unfortunately all of your extra pay is not free for you to spend, some of it is and some of it is saving you serious money in the long run.

Weekly mortgage payments act the same as bi-weekly mortgage payments. Your mortgage payments are half as much as your bi-weekly payments, and you make four extra payments per year, resulting in the same savings of time and money as in the bi-weekly example.

Imagine having an extra ,876.23 to spend, or almost 4 years of not having to make a mortgage payment. What will you do with all of that extra money?

Why Should I Choose Bi-Weekly or Weekly Over Monthly Mortgage Payments

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