Personal Budget Busters

In addition to my practice appraisal services, I am a Certificate Personal Finance Counselor® and a financial educator. For many people, hearing the term, "Personal Finance," is tantamount to covering their face with a rag doused in ether. Zzzzzz.

With that acknowledgement, one of my favorite personal finance sub-topics - and one that most participants in my classes actually find interesting and enlightening - is a "Budget Busters" table. It lists several of the little expenses that creep into our day-to-day finances, along with the big sums they add up to on a monthly and yearly basis. I've heard it called "the latté factor" elsewhere.

Here's the link:

http://www.nationalfinancialeducationcenter.org/docs/Budget_Busters_Brochure.pdf

Check it out and see if you have any of your own Busters listed. We've all got something we can work on. It's not necessarily about eliminating them, but rather minimizing their impact and placing them in their proper place among our financial priorities.

Finally, believe it or not, with Halloween over, it's now officially the Holiday season. So with that, I'll end by saying,

Happy Holidays!