Family Bugeting - Chapters 1 & 2 (What's a Budget and Why the Need for Family Budget?

"Family Budgeting, A Must for Your Home"

Author:  Yemi Omogboyega

Introduction

Love without money simply emotional. The earlier the family realizes this and work towards generating adequate income and ensure that such income is wisely expended, the better for that family.

My burning desire in this book, therefore, is to use the book to give you a very clear idea of how your family can generate multiple strings of incomes and how to plan your expenditures in order to avoid emergency financial crisis that destroy families. If I can do this for your family, then I am fulfilled.

Yemi Omogboyega, LL.B (Hons.) BL, ACAIArb.

Chapter one

What is a budget?

“for which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he may have enough to finish it: lest perhaps after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all those seeing begin to mock him saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish.”

An e-dictionary, “TranCreative Wordbook”, Version 2.2 (build 30622) 2001-2002 edition, defines a budget as “summary of intended expenditures along with proposals for how to meet them”.

This simple definition gives a clear picture of what a budget is. First, it is a summary of intended expenditures. Secondly, there are proposals for how to meet such expenditures.

Invariably every proposal can be reduced to monetary units of currency, be it in naira, dollar, the pound, euro or any form of tender within a person’s jurisdiction.

My own other definition of a budget therefore is, simply put; “human visions, expressed in words but translated to figures in monetary terms for the purposes of implementation.”

Such visions can be public (e.g. in or for Offices, churches, clubs, etc.) or private (family, etc). Wherever they may be, the two major things to be focused on are – the sources of our incomes and what we want to do with such incomes (this is called our expenditures).

“…The important thing isn’t the budget, but whether you stick with it or not. It is a lot easier to make a budget than to keep it. But if you never make one, you will probably never get finances organized..” - This study 2000 by David Humpal

 

Chapter Two

Why the need for family budget?

A personal or family life or activity that is not budgeted will be fraught with uncertainties and possible failures, mockery, sorrow and confusion. There will be no solid basis for one’s plans and projections.

Budgeting therefore eliminates such pains and

• Helps us to develop clear visions of expected income, our needs and how to reconcile them.

• Helps us to measure our current realities (in terms of our ability to obtain what we need).

• Helps us to develop genuine commitment towards solving our financial challenges and stop day-dreaming how to get out of poverty

• Ensures that a family spends its money wisely and prudently to cover all essentials (and not frivololities).

• Helps to set expenditure categories.

• Helps us to distinguish our needs from our wants. It is often difficult for us to determine this.

• Helps us to have realistic views about our financial strength and limitations occasionally so that we can forego what we cannot afford.

• Helps us count our blessing one by one and appreciate the goodness of God towards us.

• Helps us to know our true worth at any given moment, thereby providing reliable data to evaluate our ability to undertake any projects with loans from banks or other lending houses.

• Helps us to be honest with ourselves while assessing the cost-benefits of every purchase vis-à-vis cheaper alternatives.

• Helps to grow a happy family.

• Fosters a family quest or desire for a common vision, instead of a duplicity or multiplicity of efforts, etc, within the same family.

• Helps to spend money equably

• Helps the family to be keenly aware of its resources and how to expand them.

• Helps sharpen our mental capabilities and awareness

• Helps us understand where our monies go, thereby eliminating the superstitions about money flights.

• Pinpoints the highlights and lowlights in our expenditure pattern, enabling us to adjust periodically.

• Enables family to have a total grip of its financial affairs.

If this book is giving you some useful hints and you wish to explore it further by purchasing your own copies, please  contact 08034465225 (Yemi) or e-mail: treasuredynamics@gmail.com.  If you want to become a member  to have full access to further interactions after reading the book, please go to http://www.treasuredynamics.com/membershippage  and click on the membership page to sign up. Thank you.