Financial Goals and Irregular Incomes Working Together

Managing finances with a variable income can be difficult, so the financial wizards at the Equifax Finance Blog have come up with a plan to help you keep your financial goals, from everything to meeting monthly budgets to saving up a Chicago new home. These tips can be found in a recent article called, “Creating a Budget with an Irregular Family Income.”

One tip that can be found in this article refers to saving money in order to build up a cushion. Let’s face it: even people with regular monthly incomes should have an emergency fund, so that makes it doubly important for those with irregular incomes since they need to protect against a weak month of income and the potential for costly problems. Putting away a small amount of money into a separate account every month can make the difference between being able to pay your expenses on your lowest months.

Another great tip from this article centers on creating a two-part expense list to prioritize your monthly bills. One list is for ‘essential’ expenses, such as mortgage, utilities, food, etc. The second list is the ‘eventually’ list, which contains less important splurge items such as dinner and a movie out, a new cell phone, a new paint job on your house, etc. The lists pretty much say what they mean, the essential must be paid first and eventually you’ll be able to knock off a few items from the eventual list over time.   

Read more on the Equifax Finance Blog for other expert personal finance advice and follow @EFXFinanceBlog on Twitter for daily personal finance updates and quick tips to remind you to save money and live better.