{"id":8035,"date":"2013-10-30T08:50:42","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T15:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=8035"},"modified":"2013-10-29T11:50:30","modified_gmt":"2013-10-29T18:50:30","slug":"mind-your-business-budgets-work-so-you-dont-have-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2013\/10\/30\/mind-your-business-budgets-work-so-you-dont-have-to\/","title":{"rendered":"<em>Mind Your Business<\/em>: Budgets work so you don\u2019t have to"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ah, the dreaded \u201cC\u201d word: Christmas. Now that November is upon us, we enter the world of mega-purchases and last-minute presents. Welcome to overspending, where even one wrong purchase decision may catapult us into debt.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe it\u2019s time to consider the following money management steps:<\/p>\n<p><b>Set goals<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s take this time to identify our values and what we consider most important in life. So, for example, if your dream is to travel the world, a goal may be to first build up your savings.<\/p>\n<p><b>Track expenses<\/b><\/p>\n<p>It might be annoying to jot down purchases in a little notebook, but it\u2019s worth it to see just how many vanilla soy lattes have been purchased in the past three days. Expense tracking reveals those little habits that slowly chip away at the money supply.<\/p>\n<p><b>Separate needs from wants<\/b><\/p>\n<p>We want the fancy camera or new smartphone, but sometimes saving for rainy days is more rewarding than impulsive retail therapy.<\/p>\n<p><b>Make a budget<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Nobody panic: budgeting doesn\u2019t have to mean living off ramen noodles and baby spinach, or saying adios to your amigos. A proper budget is simply a guide to help achieve goals.<\/p>\n<p><b>Stick to the plan<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Money management is a lot like breaking a habit. Sometimes we adopt new customs and abandon old patterns. Other times we falter and the commitment fades. Just remember: if the plan crumbles, it\u2019s okay to repeat the first step of setting your goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ah, the dreaded \u201cC\u201d word: Christmas. Now that November is upon us, we enter the world of mega-purchases and last-minute presents. Welcome to overspending, where even one wrong purchase decision may catapult us into debt. Maybe it\u2019s time to consider the following money management steps: Set goals Let\u2019s take this time to identify our values [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-october-30-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8035"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8039,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8035\/revisions\/8039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}