Budget / Spending Plan

All your financial goals will be unreachable unless you first live within your means. An effective Budget, or Spending Plan, is a critical tool for creating and maintaining your financial health. Our counselors can help you understand your options to better budget and plan for the future in order to reach your financial goals. Call 704-341-1010 for a free consultation or complete the form on this page and a counselor will contact you.

Why Budget?

Planning is everything! And, in today’s world, achieving success without up-front planning is rare—very rare. Achieving success with your personal finances is no different. While some manage to sneak by for months without sound planning and budgeting, their failure to plan inevitably comes back to bite them where it hurts—the pocketbook. So why budget? Plain and simple, your financial wellness depends on it. Read more…

Spending Plan Development

A complete budgeting packet: important facts, clear worksheets, and simple step-by-step directions for creating a successful spending plan. The complete document is only available in the PDF file because it contains worksheets. Read more…

More With Less

Income reduction is often an unexpected event and its causes are numerous: job loss, illness, accident, divorce, natural disaster, and so on. Therefore, it is important to plan for it through budgeting, and insurance.  When it does happen, however, there are additional survival strategies you can use. “I always try to turn every disaster into an opportunity.”
-J.D. Rockefeller Read more…

Holiday Survival Guide

Seven strategies for avoiding a holiday debt-hangover, many seasonal money-saving ideas, and a simple Holiday Spending Planner. Read more…

Is It Really a Spending Problem?

In the book “Til Debt Do Us Part”, by Dr. Bernard E. Poduska, the root cause of many financial problems is behavior problems, not money problems. The following short excerpt is very concise and very helpful for those who face these issues. It is available here with permission from the publisher. Read more…

Tax Time Topics

“I’m proud to be paying taxes in the United States.  The only thing is, I could be just as proud for half the money.” Arthur Godfrey (as quoted in Lower Your Taxes—Big Time! by S. Botkin) Read more…

66 Ways to Save Money

There are many ways to save money across all categories of expenses. Here are 66 ways involving common expenses such as transportation, insurance, banking, housing, utilities, food and drugs. Read more…

Checks Have Changed: Living With Check 21

Check management tips in light of the recent law allowing your checks to be replaced with electronic copies. Checks will clear faster, so there is less “float.” Read more…