Jeff Sagario

My Budget

&= nbsp; A budget is a very useful plan to use when you are trying to save mone= y, watch what you spend, how you spend it and what your income is. My discr= etionary income is 15%, income is 50%, and expenditures are 35% of my budget. This is very great because I didn’t go into debt once I final= ly figured out what my mistake was and why I was in the hole by $18,000! Besid= es taxes, housing bills burned a hole in my pocket because San Francisco is one of the most expens= ive cities to live in. A budget is a very important strategy to utilize so that= you do not end up owing an extreme amount of money.

There are a few choices we can make within our budget. One is transportation. You= can either choose to ride the Muni or buy a car. I choose to ride the Muni and = spend the $45 a month for a bus pass. It is cheaper than buying a car and it is s= till great transportation around the city. The other choice you have is your hou= sing choice. You can choose to live with your parents, which is my choice or you= can buy or rent a house or apartment. It is cheaper if you live with someone el= se so that you are not the only one that pays the housing bills. That is why I live with my parents.

There are a few types of consequences when making budget decisions. There are many costs of buying a car next to buying a bus pass every month. Cars you must = pay monthly payments, gas, registration, taxes, tune-ups, etc. If you ride the = bus then all you have to pay is a monthly fee of $45 for a bus pass which is wh= at I do. The negative to riding the bus is that there are limits to where you ca= n go and times you can go. The bus runs on a schedule for the city not for you. = With a Muni pass you can’t outside the city and with Bart you can’t = go out of the Bay Area. The other consequence is when you choose your housing location. If you live in the city like me then it is more expensive. But si= nce I have people that live with me, we share the same house and split up the r= ent.

Budgets can definitely be used for future planning. For example if you are planning= to buy expenditures than you need money for that and if you do not have the in= come to buy what you need than you will be in debt. It is important to have a bu= dget because if you buy too much discretionary items without having money in sav= ings or extra earnings than you will definitely be in debt. You need a budget in order to learn how to save money and what to spend money on. If you spend y= our money wisely than you will be able to buy what you want or need in the futu= re.

I learned a lot from this experience. I mostly knew about strategies to save money but I learned about discretionary income, expenditures = and what your normal income is. It was confusing for some parts but I en= ded up understanding the project and purpose the more we dealt with the assignments. Now I realize how important it will be for me to earn my colle= ge degree and work a white collar job. I don’t want a blue col= lar job to earn average wages; although there is nothing wrong with hands on jobs I just would prefer a white collar job. I would use the strat= egy of a budget in order to have a nice amount of money in my savings for emergencies. I need to spend less on discretionary items and more on expenditures. I’m going to start this month! I have a better understanding of what my taxes and income will look like in the future and I want to follow exactly what I did on my project. I will not buy a car for a while and I will continue to ride the bus to save money.