What do I do after creating a budget?
We, at Build My Wealth, don’t recommend daily expense tracking. Instead, we suggest you try creating a zero-based budget. If you’re unsure what that is, you can check these guides:
Once you’re done with your budget, here’s what to do next:
Wait for your income to arrive.
Once payday arrives, execute your budget. Here are two options on how to do that:
Your first option is to withdraw your money. Then, divide the cash according to your budget plan and put it into separate envelopes. This method is called the cash envelope system.
Your second option is to have separate bank accounts for different spending purposes. Include this in your plan so that once your income arrives, you immediately know how much money to transfer to which bank account.
After dividing your income in real life, open the Build My Wealth app on your phone.
Click on Budget.
Click on the budget summary.
You will see checkboxes on the left side of each entry.
Click each checkbox to confirm that you’ve set aside the right amount of money for it.
This lets the app know that you’re done following your budget plan.
Go to Accounts.
Update the corresponding account balances.
Some account balances will automatically be updated after you’ve clicked a checkbox. This happens when you include the following actions in your budget:
Paying off debt
Saving money on a specific asset
Saving money for a goal
You’ll have to do it manually if you’re setting aside money for expenses.
For example, you have budgeted $300 for next month’s groceries. You’ll be transferring that amount to Savings Account A for safekeeping.
In the app, you’ve added it as an expense. The app is unaware that you’ll be keeping this money temporarily in Savings Account A. Hence, once you click the checkbox for groceries, the app will not automatically update the balance of Savings Account A. You will have to do it manually.
Every two weeks or so update your account balances under Accounts to determine if your spending is still within budget.
