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    Spreadsheety / Budgety / Financial Planning-y Advice Needed

    EDIT: Removed
    Last edited by Johnny Velvet; 04-11-2021, 17:18.

    #2
    You might be better off with a dedicated app. But if you are going to do it in Excel, not sure you need a template. Just have a column for monthly expenditures, and a figure for income. Sum the former and compare it to the latter. If you want to incorporate one-offs like holidays, just multiply the previous two results by 12 and have another column for the one-offs to give yourself an annual budget.

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      #3
      Mint is supposed to be the best one but it doesn't integrate with UK accounts, so I haven't tried it. Toshl works in the UK, you could give that a go.

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        #4
        Assuming you already have a Google account, there are free templates on Google sheets for both annual and monthly Budgets.

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          #5
          I'd back up matt's suggestion of the google sheet templates as a starting point.

          Try to split your expenses between costs that you have no choice but to pay (e.g. mortgage (although remortgaging is likely to be the single most beneficial thing you can do if it is an option), life assurance, service charges, travel ticket), things that you need to have but could potentially save money on (gas/electricity, utilities, weekly shop) and purely discretionary spend (entertainment etc.).

          The mere change to consciously tracking your spending will reduce your spending regardless of any clever analysis that you do.

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            #6
            The single most valuable thing I can add is to put your saving/iinvesting* in the mandatory items column. If you set an amount, like 5% of each paycheque, and have it automatically** come off the top like a bill payment, you'll be minted. If you make saving/investing something you do with 'whatever is left over', it won't happen...and if it does, it will be meagre. Take saving as seriously as you would you rent/mortgage payment and don't ever stray from that.

            *Put your saving/investing into index ETFs or index mutual funds with low, low fees and don't ever touch them. Just let them do their thing.
            **Can't stress this part enough. Make it an automatic transfer each week/paycheque and don't ever muck with it.

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              #7
              Originally posted by Ek weet nie View Post
              The mere change to consciously tracking your spending will reduce your spending regardless of any clever analysis that you do.
              This.

              Mrs. S and I have an Excel spreadsheet we use which I'd be happy to send a blank version of. But I've made it more complex than it needs to be as I'm an accountant. Ek Weet Nie's point is the key.

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                #8
                In an Irish context there are tax disadvantages to investing in mutual funds outside of your pension fund. WOM's advice holds if you have a pension provider that has them. Our provider charges 50 bps on the limited index funds they have available.

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