Using Online Resources To Better Your Finances And Business, Part 1

The other day I met with a client of ours that does their own bookkeeping and we were reviewing her bookkeeping file and found that the bookkeeping was done quite well.  When she incorporated in mid 2011, she did not know how to do bookkeeping and when we let her know we have the option of bookkeeping in our accounting packages, she hummed and hawed.  After a bit of conversation, she decided that she wanted to try it on her own.  Now just over 6 months later we reviewed her bookkeeping and found that the bookkeeping was done well!  Because most people that don’t know how to do bookkeeping take awhile to catch on, I was surprised that she learned and caught on so fast.  I asked her how she did it, and her answer…”I learned how on You Tube.”  I looked on www.youtube.com and found that there were tons of tutorials on Quickbooks. Wow, it’s true you can learn off Youtube!

I shouldn’t have been surprised as I’ve used You Tube to learn how to do specific things in the music studio.  You Tube can be a great resource, so don’t hesitate to use it.  The key to learning from the internet is to check your source and verify its accuracy.   Search more than one site as you can’t believe everything on every site!  There is truth and lies all over the internet, so go to trusted websites and when you are unsure use google to search and find other websites and what people are saying to confirm it is a trusted site, video, blog etc.

I’ll continue my blog on using online resources to better your finances and business on Thursday.  Please watch out for that.  I will discuss more resources you should know about such as useful blogs on finance and taxes and useful online links for stocks and investing!   

Tips on the Closed Circle

How you can you ensure an effective and successful Closed Circle? Here are a few important points to remember:

• It is very important for married couples to agree on their Closed Circle. One of the main causes for divorce is division over finances. When a couple agrees on “How Much is Enough”, finances are much less of an issue.
• Be diligent and consistent with your Closed Circle, enter your receipts daily or weekly.
• Your Closed Circle should be reviewed and adjusted annually and upon any major life changes.
• Accountability is important. If you are married, your spouse is your accountability partner. If you are single, you need to appoint a family member, friend or mentor to be your accountability partner.

I hope you have more of an understanding about the Closed Circle budget by this time. If you need my help in clarifying some points, let me know. I will be glad to help!

Closed Circle Budget in depth

As I mentioned on my previous blog, the Closed Circle is broken down into Obligations, Necessities and Wants.

• Obligations are things that you are obligated to pay on a monthly basis, whether you are around or not.
• Necessities are things you need on a regular basis, however you would not have to pay for if you were away from home.
• Wants are material things that you want.

Being on a Closed Circle budget requires you to make a full list of all your obligations, necessities and wants. From there, you can get a very clear picture of where you are at and where you want to be in terms of your finances.

The Closed Circle

It seems today that a lot of people are living in what we call an Open Circle - the more money they make, the more money they spend. And when there’s a drought in life and the economy is bad, many people continue spending like they did before.

A lot of these people do not realize that they’re going into an Open Circle until it is too late. They spend more and get into more debt. Things continue to get worse for them until they are unable to pay their bills. They eventually end up having to consolidate or re-finance to be able to keep up with their debts. Some people even have to go as far as filing for bankruptcy.

Living in a Closed Circle will allow you to know the answer to the question – how much is enough? In a marriage, having a spouse in agreement is always the most important thing. Husbands and wives in disagreement especially on a major issue like finance can cause arguments, stress and even worse, divorce. If we get into the idea of a closed circle and answer the question, how much is enough, spouses can have an agreement on their finances, stick to this agreement and live in abundance and overflow. Michael Lepitre