The “Joys” of Budgeting

From the desk of John Brandow
The “Joys” of Budgeting
In the next few weeks the postings on this blog is going to focus on personal budgeting
We have developed a full one day course covering these aspects and showing students
(grown up ones and potentially rich ones at that) how to do a personal budget and stick to it. If you follow our guidance you can be out of debt (totally and forever) within 5 years. No Bull and this includes your house !
1. Budgets are a necessary evil.
But it is the practical way to know what you’re spending - and to make sure your money is being used the way you intended it to be used. This is a discipline thing ! – we are going to talk about that a lot
2. The following are the basic steps in creating a budget
a. First determine what you are spending your money on – use a template available from us.
b. Determine your long term financial goals and evaluate your current spending against that
c. On a monthly basis track your spending to make sure it stays within your determined guidelines.( again using the template supplied by us)
3. . Don't be too finicky
When you use a computer program to do your budget you can get bogged down into too much detail. Detail is good – too much is not. Once you have gone through your prioritized detail and decide what to expand and what to cut out and the sums have made sense focus on these and worry less about other aspects of your spending.
4. The dangers of drawing too much cash and too regularly
If you find that you have drawn R1000 today and tomorrow you need to draw money again you might have a thief around – You ! Readily available cash in your wallet is a drawcard for unnecessary spending. Keep n little black book and keep record of what you are spending your cash on
5. Spending beyond your limits is dangerous.
But if you do, you are amongst good company(or bad ones depending on how you look at it )
You will need to make some serious efforts to cut back – the discipline thing !

6. Beware some luxuries disguise themselves as necessities.
A Budget should balance with the “surplus” being a surplus (+) and not a deficit (-) at the end of the exercise. It is when luxuries disguise themselves and you spend on them thinking it is a necessity that the balance is thrown out
7. The 10% rule
Your budget should ideally show spending of a maximum of 90% of your income – that way you will be saving 10% every month ! This should ideally go into a notice deposit account – you must not be able to draw it without giving notice.
8. The extras.
Don’t count “possibilities” into your budget. Bonuses , tax rebates etc should be windfalls and should ideally be going into the notice account !
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9. Beware of inflation
As your income increases over time and you start earning more money discipline can easily go out the window. Use this extra money as part of your long term goals. Notice deposit !
10. Last but not least = Discipline
If you lack this and do not keep to these rules debt councillors are in your

The Farce of Affirmative action

From the desk of John Brandow

I attended the first day of the Skills and training summit at the CSIR in Pretoria yesterday.
Statements and statistics given by some of the speakers have indicated clearly that Affirmative action is a farce.  10 years ago there was a shortage of 300 000 managers in South Africa.  Over this period only 30 000 was trained and the shortage figure is now higher than 10 years ago.  Still the government sticks to its affirmative action policy.  My opinion ?  I contend that this shortage can be eliminated by appointed white males that are skilled and out there !  Exactly the same scenario exists in the artisan field.  No figures were given but it is a fact that if a bucket has a hole it will eventually run empty if it is not filled with at least the same stream of water that is running out.  There are only 5000 to 7000 thousand artisans trained anually while there is a need for at least 20 000  in South Africa. No need for a calculator here.
Again most of the artisans that is needed is most probably available in the White pool.

Massive new projects are planned and under way - Ellisras for instance (see www.ellisras.blogspot.com)  Where is the artisans going to come from ?   Where is the managers going to come from ?

Biggest question however is WHEN IS THE GOVERNMENT GOING TO WAKE UP AND START THINKING FOR THEMSELVES ?

Personal budgeting for dummies

From the desk of John Brandow

So are you earning a good salary ?  And are you living well ?  Do you spend your money in the right places ?


 Answer these few questions :

1.  Do you feel a tight squeese somewhere in your finances ?
2.  Are you feeling you are somewhere not in control of your finances ?
3.  Is the month too long between paydays?
4.  Would it be nice to be debt free in 5 years ?  Do you think it is possible ?
7.  Would you like to have the tools to do this ?

If you answered yes to even one of these you should make an effort and attend one of our basic free seminars
Send me an email : John@brandow.co.za for an invite