Managing My Daily Budget

Let me be honest. Being married is a whole lot more difficult than being single, at least for me. Life as my single self knew has ended. There are so many things to think about now: thinking of how meals can appear three times a day at our dining table, thinking of how our little crib in the in-laws' house can be kept clean and decent, thinking how to save money for future: we dream of our own little house, our future children's education, and our pension plan.

That's why I started to find solace in snooping on other women's sharing on forums and blogs. It's easier to see how other women/people cope with life than having to figure everything out by myself from scratch. One thing that concerns me the most is our finance. My husband and I are both employees with limited salary, and I thought our limited salary can bring us anywhere, but I was wrong. Thanks to financial planners’ blogs, newsletters and twitters, I found out I can do something.

A few months ago my brother introduced me to www.LiveOlive.com (I don’t remember why, I think it’s one of her friends works there or something) and I found it interesting because the articles there are suitable for women and people who just start to have financial awareness, like me!. 

Here is how I basically manage our monthly salary, after setting aside tithing: 

Picture is from here

1. The first thing to do is to INVEST first. I invest my money in Reksadana and sometimes gold. Beware: Before you invest, take time to really read and learn first about investment. It is worth it. LiveOlive is a good place to start learning about money management and investment. Read this link and tell me you’re not intriqued to invest! 4 Alasan Mengapa Wanita Sebaiknya Berinvestasi
2. Then, I put aside money to build my Dana Darurat. My mistake was putting money in investments and not building Dana Darurat, because I thought money in Dana Darurat will not grow. Oh, how I wish I knew how important Dana Darurat is. Now that I need to pay for my first house’s down payment, I cannot sell my Reksadana and gold because their prices are decreasing so low these days. If only I had Dana Darurat, things will be easier. Read about the importance of Dana Darurat here.
3. After feeling secure because all the savings and investments have been set aside, I plan my expense based on budget. I have both weekly expense budget and monthly expense budget. You can take a peek at what expense budget you should have here. They even have a Budgeting Tool! This makes it so much easier to spend money everyday.

Well, ladies, if you want to have your finance prepared for the future while still living a good life now, what are you waiting for? You just need to plan it, and LiveOlive can be your partner.

You can ”Like” their Facebook Fanpage https://www.facebook.com/MyLiveOlive, or you can “Follow” their tweets: https://twitter.com/MyLiveOlive. If you have Google+, “Follow” them here: https://plus.google.com/b/109724956281090737591. And they have a YouTube Channel! http://www.youtube.com/user/MyLiveOlive