Being in the business of helping people with their personal budget, I peruse many, many websites for the latest-and-greatest when it comes to personal budgeting. Usually what you find is the same information - just packaged slightly different. That’s perfectly okay! The important thing is to recognize the good from the bad and ugly.

I decided to review CNNMoney’s “Top Things to Know” about a personal budget. Let’s see if I can help separate the wheat from the chaff.

The bold or italic points are CNNMoney’s, the rest is just me.

1. Budgets are a necessary evil.
I’m offended! They do come around right after that nasty statement and mention that a personal budget is the only practical way to get a grip on your spending. Thank you.

2. Creating a budget generally requires three steps:

* Identify how you spend money now.
* Evaluate your current spending…
* Track your spending…

Bingo. Couldn’t have said it better myself. It is imperative that you first track your spending for a while before you start getting up-tight about sticking to a budget. Man, you haven’t ever had a budget and all of a sudden you’re supposed to be great at it? Yeah right. And I picked up golf last week and now am expecting to win one of those green jackets…It takes time, patience, and perseverance.

So here I agree with CNNMoney whole-heartedly. You track for a while, you do a bit of quick analysis, and you track again. Repeat forever.

3. Use software to save grief.
I address the issue of software making things worse in a different article. So what I’ll say here is this: MS Money and Quicken do not yet have flexible, easy-to-use, budgeting tools. If they did, I never would have constructed the YNAB system in the first place. MS Money came free with my laptop and I still don’t even use it. Take that for what it’s worth.

4. Don’t drive youself nuts.
CNNMoney makes a good point here about giving overzealous attention to detail. I couldn’t agree more. Stick with some short-term goals, focus, go after them with intensity, but don’t get caught looking at a single tree and missing the forest. Keep your entire financial picture in mind.

5. Watch out for cash leakage.
It’s an ongoing debate, whether people spend more when they have cash or plastic (be it a credit or debit card) in their pocket. I personally like to think I’m not influenced by the medium of exchange. I’ve talked with several people who have told me that cash will just slip through their fingers because when it’s not in the checking account it’s already “spent”. If this is the case with you, take the necessary action and operate on a purely debit card basis.

6. Spending beyond your limits is dangerous.
The article brings up an interesting statistic, citing it as a government figure, whatever that means. They mention that many households with total income of $50,000 or less are spending more than they bring in. Okay…I don’t think I would mention that right after I caution the reader about overspending. Sometimes citing these “facts” gives people reason to not act. If everyone’s in the same boat, what’s the big deal?

Well, as Dave Ramsey says, “If broke is normal, I want to be weird.” Well put.

7. Beware of luxuries dressed up as necessities.
A personal budget will help you catch these tendencies. Your budget is like a radar, and these incoming torpedoes will make a pretty loud noise if you’re diligent about looking at the screen every once in a while. Watch out for spending that’s rising faster than inflation and cut it back where possible.

8. Tithe yourself.
The article mentions saving 10 percent…for your big picture items. I guess they mean retirement there. I suggest 15% at a minimum. Please don’t count on Uncle Sam to help you out. Do it yourself and you’ll be safer, securer, and richer.

9. Don’t count on windfalls.
Whenever my wife and I receive a windfall it’s just gravy. Plus, one of the Main Rules of the YNAB Personal Budget is that you spend after you earn. Basically, if you haven’t already received it, you can’t budget it.

10. Beware of spending creep.
Your annual income will rise. Don’t consume these increases straight-off. Tithing, as mentioned above, does a pretty good job of making sure your savings increase along with your income (you commit to saving 15 percent, not some fixed amount). My wife and I have discussed the possibility of living one year behind raises. I haven’t thought it through completely, but we’re thinking of someting like this:

I’m making $45,000 per year. I get a $2,000 raise. For the next year we would sock that monthly surplus created by the extra $2,000 into retirement. The next year, let’s say I get a raise of $2,500. We would then increase our living standard up to $47,000 (after the first raise), and sock the $2,500 into retirement.

It’s just something I’ve been thinking about. Granted, this doesn’t account for any cost of living increases for the year, so if we were living close to the edge, and gas prices sky-rocketed, we might feel it. However, I think the principle is important. You cannot and should not consistently consume all of your increase. It lends itself too easily to living beyond your means.

So, there you have it. Ten ways to help with your personal budget.