“I’m sorry dear, I couldn’t qualify for a mortgage because fifteen years ago I simply had to watch three more cat videos every weekend instead of figuring out an easy fix for falling behind on my car payment every month.”

Help With Your Budgeting Goals

What if we could make it easier to get started and know exactly what to do? Maybe even automate most of it with a few simple clicks or swipes? What if you didn’t have to create your own budget from scratch, but simply respond to a series of easy, adaptive questions, then let the technology create it for you? What if you still had control over every decision or priority, but had the option of agreeing to suggested approaches or priorities as well?

What if maintaining and updating your budget could take even less time than it does now? What if we were able to make it so quick and easy to get started that it would take longer to ignore it than to answer a few basic questions and start budgeting? What if you set the terms and goals, but we helped categorize your spending in real time as you shopped so you don’t have to sit down later and play catch-up?

What if you could be reminded from time to time of what you’re saving or accomplishing with those little changes that don’t seem to add up quickly enough? What if it were easy to find out (as often as you wished) exactly how much interest you’ve saved or how many late fees you’ve avoided since getting serious about monthly budget goals? What if it a few clicks or swipes could open up a debt payoff planner that visually showed you exactly where you are on your journey – how far you’ve come, and how soon you’ll reach your next goal?

That last one’s a little trickier. We’re not going to offer you technology that helps you stay confused about what you owe or where you usually run into trouble each month. Our ideal budget tracker app doesn’t have a “keep me in the dark about where my money really goes” feature on it. You could probably put electrical tape over part of the screen or something, but there’s a better solution. What if you could easily compare your stated priorities with what your actual spending says your priorities are, and decide point by point whether or not to make adjustments based on that information? What if you were offered straightforward budgeting tips and suggestions which you could choose to follow, or not, based on what you decided was best?

The right technology simplifies complex tasks. The right apps or tools crunch vast amounts of information and presents us with the parts we request in the formats we find most useful. What it doesn’t do is make the big decisions for us. It doesn’t get offended when we fall short of our personal budget goals. Just like our GPS when you pass an exit or choose a different turn, technology makes sure we know that we’ve gone another way, then recalculates what it would take to get us back on track. It doesn’t judge us because it’s not alive (well, as far as we know). It just keeps working to do whatever we’ve asked it to do.

We could probably learn a thing or two from that approach ourselves.

Smart Budget Goals

There are three basic types of goals it’s helpful to keep in mind when establishing our budget. What goes into each category is entirely up to you.

The first are our short-term goals and obligations. It might be easiest to think of this as “balancing our books” each month. In other words, the most basic and immediate goal of budget management is to make sure we can pay our bills and take care of other essentials each month. This is Adulting 101. Make sure the rent is covered and the car payment made. Have a pretty good idea what utilities are likely to be this month and set aside enough to cover those as well. Plan on needing groceries and gas and whatever else your budget tells you comes up regularly. Then we can look at whether to order out this week or join our friends on that weekend trip.

If our income simply does not cover our monthly expenses – this month or any other month – we have a more serious issue to figure out. (Don’t worry – it’s still doable, just a bit trickier.) On the other hand, if we’re making enough to pay for everything but still seem to end up behind, that’s fixable with a simple budget and a little self-discipline.

The second type of smart budget goals are those special things we’d like to be able to do or buy. It’s easiest to think of these as “medium range” goals – they’re not going to be met this month or maybe not even this year, but they’re easier to focus on than truly long-term goals like retiring at 68 or paying off your home. There’s that vacation we’ve always wanted to take. The car we’d like to buy our daughter when she graduates. The freedom to leave that second job and have more time to do things we actually care about.

These are budgeting goals we can actually see getting closer if we stick to our plans. A budget can help you reach a financial goal by putting real numbers and dates and a plan to the total you hope to save by a certain date. The right budget tracker can make it even easier by reminding us of how close we’re getting to each goal and how far we’ve come since we started.

The third category of financial budgets is our long-term planning – our major hopes and goals for the future. These are arguably some of the most important personal budget goals we can set. As good Americans, however, most of us almost pride ourselves on our inability or unwillingness to think past, say… next Thursday. We tell ourselves things will magically work out somehow, and maybe some of them will. Life isn’t all about financial budgets and better ways to save money.

The thing is, while money may not be the most important thing, it somehow manages to impact almost everything that is important to us. A budget can help you reach a financial goal by reminding you how badly you want to be able to afford that guitar, that computer, or that vacation. A budget can help you reach a financial goal by helping you see the connection between the small amounts you’re using differently today and how much difference they could make if you keep doing those same small things until you retire. A budget can help you reach a financial goal by making the important things tangible and real before they get here. Then, when they do arrive, we can make the most of them.

In fact, some would argue that the best thing about learning to budget better and making effective use of the available budget tools is that making those things second nature to us – establishing our own budget goals as a natural part of everything we do – actually frees us up from thinking about them so often. How often have you thought to yourself, “I should create a spreadsheet outlining the steps involved in going to my car, starting it, and driving to work.” You probably haven’t, even though being able to do those things is super-important. That’s because you’ve developed habits making it natural. You probably don’t even think about it most of the time. Spending 20 minutes a week with your online budget or budget spreadsheet is the same way – it becomes natural, and you can maintain positive behavior while focusing on other things.

Budget Better For Your Small Business

Small business budget goals may look different than personal budget goals in terms of the specifics, but the processes are very much the same.

Your small business has to make at least as much as it costs to stay open each month – clear monthly budget goals can help you avoid unpleasant surprises or make more effective decisions in real time. Your small business should have medium-range goals in terms of growth targets or profitability, or in terms of paying down debt – just like with a personal debt payoff planner. And even the humblest entrepreneur should have a few long-term business budget goals as part of their vision. If you don’t know where you’d like to go with your endeavors, how will you know if you’re going the right way?

Any good accountant or reputable budget website will tell you that small business which don’t put time and energy into their financial budgets don’t stick around very long. Follow your vision and live your dreams, entrepreneurs, but if you’re serious about making them last, it should be no problem to establish a few easy budget goals and get comfortable using some basic budget tools to help you meet them. Budgeting effectively makes your small business better. When you budget better, your business benefits even more.