Becoming an adult can be so tricky. You will have a lot of responsibilities right off the bat. Despite your parents’ efforts to prepare you for your adulthood journey, you will still experience many unexpected challenges that you might have to solve by yourself. Fortunately, you can create stability for your life to help you make the path more manageable. One of your most valuable tools is money, which you can get from your job.
Unfortunately, most adults have difficulty with financial management. Some might also find that what they earn from their respective careers is not enough, forcing themselves to climb for a promotion or get a part-time gig. However, you will find that honing your financial management skills will still be relevant in your efforts to create stability for your life.
Creating a budget requires lots of practice, discipline, and time. If you need help with your financial journey, you will find that splitting your income into these specific categories can help you:
Quadrant 1: Essentials
There will always be a reason why you have to earn more money at a specific time. What makes financial stability so important is that it can be critical to how people survive a day, let alone a month. Necessities include the following:
- Groceries
- Food
- Hygiene
- Medication
- Shelter or rent
They are not free, making them top priorities when budgeting your income. The financial category becomes more valuable when you have a family to feed. It will be necessary to ensure that you can put enough food on the table and a roof over your loved ones’ heads. The financial expenses for essentials will be all about survival. Stability might be taking a back seat, but you cannot achieve it if you struggle to survive a day. One particular challenge for this quadrant could be your monthly mortgage, making it critical to plan if you decide to buy a house.
Quadrant 2: Savings
Your survival will be the top priority, but people rarely use all their income for the area. There might be extra cash for you to use for other essentials, but it is critical to keep it at a bare minimum. What should you do with the extra money? Dedicate it to your savings. It will be necessary to open another bank account to avoid confusing your savings with your spending account. However, it will be ideal to have more than one purpose for this budgeting area. The different types include:
- Emergency fund
- Gifts
- Home Maintenance
- Unemployment fund
It can be challenging to build enough savings for these different types, but you could start with creating one before moving on to the next. This quadrant allows enough flexibility for your life. Should you encounter unnecessary expenses like hospital bills, home repairs, and an expensive wedding dress, you will not have to sacrifice your essentials.
Quadrant 3: Investments
Once you have the first two quadrants set, you start to build a more stable lifestyle for yourself. It might reach a point where money might not become a problem. However, it does not mean that you are safe forever. It becomes a challenging reality when you have no more income to rely on during retirement. Your savings will have to be rerouted to your essentials, but you might end up draining them after a few years. It will be necessary to provide yourself with a comfortable retirement during your working years, which starts with dedicating a part of your budget to investments. Here are a few expenses to consider for this quadrant:
- Retirement fund/pension
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Business investments
- After-retirement career funds
Ideally, you want to ensure that income continues to arrive even after retirement. Fortunately, becoming a franchise owner of a stable business can help you out. High-demand urgent care business opportunities, for example, could be profitable, providing you with an investment in your retirement years that will make your life stable.
Quadrant 4: Leisure
You will be dedicating your income to all of your necessities and investments, but you might end up forgetting what you are living for in your life. While it is essential to create financial stability, you will have to pay yourself as well. Do things in life that allow you to enjoy it, even if you have to dedicate part of your budget to it. Some of the things that fall under this quadrant include:
- Clothes
- Shoes
- Travel
- Vacation
- Books
- Entertainment
- Social Events
Stability will be necessary, but so is sanity. If you are not spending to enjoy your life, you might end up sacrificing your best years for something that should be second to creating a happy and satisfying life.
Budgeting will be challenging, especially in the initial stages. One unfortunate situation that could lead to lots of expenses could destroy your budget for years, making it critical to establish stability as early as possible.
