1. Am I living within my means? Does my income cover my expenses? Do I have enough income to pay my bills?
Currently my financial performance as it relates to my budget is mixed. On certain months, I perform well, being underbudget, with excess savings. However, during other periods, my overall performance faulters, with me spending more than I earn in income. This circumstance is primarily attributable to a lack of overall financial discipline on my part. In addition, seasonality also plays a large role within my budgetary decisions. For example, the holiday season was particularly high as it relates to expenditures, due to higher discretionary purchases. Likewise, Q1 of the year is particularly lower in terms of expenses due in part to lower discretionary items appearing within my budget. This a period that has historically seen lower required expenditures such as clothing. Overall, I have enough to pay all my required bills. The primary issue relates to contributing adequately to saving and retirement (Braunstein,, 2002).
2. Am I financially independent from my family?
Yes, I am financially independent from my family in terms of monthly expenses. I am fully able to pay rent, gas, utilities, and other essential expenses without...
However, if a significant economic downturn was to occur or if my income significantly declined, I would be heavily dependent on my family for living expense.
3. Do I have an emergency fund?
Somewhat, I am currently in the process or establishing my emergency fund. The difficulty here lies in part to my impulsive nature as it relates to many discretionary items. These items which include restaurants, tickets to certain events, and other miscellaneous items, adds significantly to my overall expenses during a given month. These impulsive purchases are...
…investment trusts, and certain inflation hedges such as gold. Investment research will be a continuous process that leverages my
passion for the capital markets. Here, I will look to continually learn about financial elements and products to become better acquainted with their benefits and downsides.
7. How will you manage your credit? How will you determine when to borrower?
To manage my credit, I will first have a very low credit limit on my existing credit cards. I will resist the temptation to increase the credit limit and will instead be very discipline in maintaining a reasonable amount of credit card debt throughout a given monthly period. This debt will be paid each month, on time, and in full, to avoid costly interest charges. In addition, I will look to use credit cards that provide additional benefits such as points or cash back to better supplement my overall…
