No matter what you want to accomplish with your cash in 2025, a budget is essential to making it happen. Without one, it can be hard to know what you’re spending — and potentially overspending on — each month and how it’s affecting your finances.
Making a budget doesn’t have to be hard. Whether you’re creating your first-ever budget or trying to recover from some financial setbacks in 2024, here’s a rundown of how to make this the year you master money management.
Read more: Best Budgeting Apps to Master Your 2025 Budget
How to create a budget
Your ideal budget depends on your unique financial situation. There are some common steps that apply to everyone.
1. Calculate your monthly income
You need to know how much you’re earning before you can figure out how much you can spend and save. If you have a regular job with a steady paycheck, it’s easy: Look at your paychecks to gauge how much you have to work with each month.
If your income is irregular, look at the past six to 12 months of your bank account statements and add up how much you’ve earned. Then, divide that total by that same number of months to estimate your average monthly income. For example, if you brought in $70,000 in the last 12 months, divide that number by 12 for a monthly working average of $5,833. Recalculate your anticipated income every few months to account for any fluctuations.
2. Calculate your monthly expenses
Next, it’s time to start thinking about how much you spend. Begin by creating a line item for every major monthly expense that doesn’t change. This includes things like:
- Rent or mortgage
- Utilities
- Insurance
- Car loan
- Student loans
Once you’ve determined your fixed monthly expenses, consider your variable monthly expenses. These are the items you regularly spend on, but the amount varies from month to month. These might include:
- Groceries
- Clothing
- Entertainment
- Dining out
- Charitable giving
3. Set your financial goals
With a solid understanding of what’s coming in and what’s going out, consider how much you should save each month. The most important goal is building an emergency fund. This is your safety net if something terrible happens, like losing your job or facing a sudden big medical bill.
It’s equally important to chip away at any credit card debt. If you’re carrying balances from month to month and paying steep interest charges, you’ll struggle to save more money for the future. Consider all of your debts to determine which goal should take priority in your budget.
Then, it’s time to think about your short-, medium- and long-term savings goals. For example, a short-term goal might be saving enough money for a vacation this year. A medium-term goal might be something you want to accomplish in the next few years, such as saving a down payment for a house or buying a new car. Long-term goals might include building a college fund for your child and eventually retiring.
Your budget should help you balance all of these goals. For example, if you want to stop renting as soon as possible, you may choose to focus on creating your down payment fund. Once you’ve purchased a home, you might direct more of your efforts to retirement savings.
4. Choose a budgeting strategy
There are several ways to build your budget. Here are some common strategies and who they’re best suited for.
Zero-based budget
With this method, you assign every dollar you get to a specific budget category. If there’s any money left over after you’ve funded all your categories, you can decide what to use it for, such as paying off extra debt, boosting your emergency fund or investing.
This strategy is a good fit if you have an irregular income because it forces you to be deliberate about what your money goes toward.
Envelope system
This old-school method — it used to mean putting cash in physical envelopes — has gone digital thanks to apps such as Goodbudget. Under this system, you set a limit for each spending category. Once you’ve spent all the money in that category, you can’t spend anymore.
This can help you keep your spending in check. For example, if you cap your grocery spending to $200 each month, you might total up your grocery cart before checkout rather than grabbing whatever you want. The envelope system is a solid choice if you’ve struggled with overspending.
50/30/20 budget
This method breaks down spending into three components: needs, wants and debt repayment or emergency savings.
You allocate 50% of your budget to needs, such as housing, utilities and groceries. Wants — such as dining out, travel and subscriptions — get 30%. The final 20% goes toward savings, paying off debts or both.
The 50/30/20 rule is a smart choice if you’re just getting started with budgeting or the nitty-gritty details overwhelm you.
How to stick to your budget
Follow these steps to stay on track with your spending goals.
Monitor and adjust
Check on your budget regularly and make adjustments as needed. Look for categories you overspend on and identify ways to trim costs. If you have money left over, consider the best way to allocate it. Monitoring your spending allows you to tweak your budget to best fit your goals and adjust to any changes in your financial situation.
Use a budgeting app
A budgeting app can make budgeting significantly easier. These apps can track your income and spending, sort transactions into categories, notify you when you’re about to hit your spending limits and identify ways to save some cash.
For example, Rocket Money can comb through your bills to identify subscriptions you may want to cancel, and Cleo can help you set spending challenges to limit your purchases in categories you tend to overspend in.
Finally crush your budgeting goals with Rocket Money.
Automate your savings
Automating your savings can help you stick to your savings goals. If your employer sends you a direct deposit every two weeks, for example, you can have them put a percentage of that money into your savings account. If you’re self-employed, you can set up a monthly transfer from your checking to your savings account.
By diverting money from your everyday spending account, you’ll train yourself to live on less and ensure you always set aside money for the future.
Trim your spending
As you review your budget, look for every opportunity to reduce your costs. Every little bit helps, whether that’s making coffee at home or lowering your thermostat to reduce your energy bills. At the same time, you look for ways to reduce larger expenses, such as shopping for a more affordable auto or homeowners insurance policy.
Bottom line
No one can say for certain what 2025 will look like. Will interest rates fall? Will homes become more affordable? Will inflation finally taper off? Experts can speculate, but there’s no crystal ball. So, it’s smart to focus on what you can actually control.
By creating a budget, you can prepare your finances for whatever this year brings. When you stick to it, you can save more money to make this year — and all the years after it — feel less stressful and more enjoyable.
Here’s to a year where you make sense of all your dollars. You got this.
More budgeting tips:
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