Budget

Avoid Financial Meltdown

Good budgeting requires a number of things. Certainly, sound financial understanding is important, but there are other, often overlooked, factors.

Australians have been living in ‘the lucky country’ yet traditional ideas of standards of living and wealth need to be readjusted. Real wage growth has been slow for many years and debt generally has increased enormously. The obvious example is the cost of homes. Gone are the days that a conservative home loan could be easily serviced. Buying a home has new high-debt meaning in today’s Australia.

It is not just homes either. Utilities, food costs, education, petrol and just about every other aspect of our daily costs have risen. Financial meltdowns can and do happen because original cost values in a budget are no longer correct. Often we recalculate budgets for clients and find they are operating  on a limited or even negative cashflow. So to get back in the black, you need to work out your actual current budget.

Costs Calculator

A1 Debt Assistance offers a free budget calculator spreadsheet. Use the contact form on this site or just call us and we will email it to you as an attachment. If you do use our budget calculator spreadsheet you have be totally honest and not overlook any incidental expenses such as clothing, entertainment or holidays.

Please calculate all of your budget costs on a weekly basis and also enter your take home (net) income as a weekly income – if you are paid monthly, simply multiply your income by 12 and divide by 52 thus arriving at your weekly net income. If you get paid fortnightly, multiply your net income by 26 and divide by 52.