My 2022 Budgeting Plan | A Guide For Athlete's Budgeting
HAVING A BUDGET IS SIMPLE, STICKING TO A BUDGET IS DIFFICULT.
To start off the year every year, I analyze my financial budget from the past year. This gives me a chance to go over my expenses and figure out where I may have went wrong and how I can make improvements. It also gives me a chance to reset my goals based on what I did right and go over my investment strategy to see where I can double down and/or adjust based on my long term financial goals and short term needs.
This year, with everything that transpired between 2020-2021 and the fact that I’m stepping into a new phase of my life [almost 31], I wanted to adjust and be more intentional in the way I allocate my finances. As an athlete you have to consistently analyze your game tape, the same holds true with your money management.
My financial goal is to continue to build financial freedom and stability but increase my sources of passive income while also strategizing how I direct my funds.
Here’s a breakdown of my 2022 budgeting plan:
My income is broken down to 2 buckets. Active & Passive. For example, my passive income bucket consists of income from courses, merch, product launches. Anything that doesn’t involve me having to do work. If I can increase this bucket it gives me more money to allocate to my different spending funds I would like to invest in. My funds are divided like this: Emergency fund, Travel fund, Family fund, Learning fund, Fun fund, and Investing fund.
Most people are familiar with an emergency fund. It’s basically to protect yourself incase of emergency which can include losing a job, having to pay for an unexpected expense. This fund should be enough to last you 3-6 months. I suggest 9-12 months because you can never be so sure. As we witnessed last year, even when you are prepared you may never be prepared.
I wanted to be intentional about having a learning fund, fun fund, and travel fund to make sure I can keep track of my budget in how I go about spending for these occasions. I take pride in investing in myself so that is why I created my learning fund. I wanted to go on vacation but what happens a lot is that you don’t plan properly for vacation and end up spending more than you wanted to or needed, so I created a travel fund. Lastly a fun fund, is essentially for activities like Topgolf or going out to eat on occasion. A lot of time at least based on my previous year’s habits, I wouldn’t keep track of my fun activities and then look back at the end of the month wondering when and where I spent certain dollars at.
Rather than solely use financial apps to help monitor my spending and budget, I worked with our A Frugal Athlete team to build out a comprehensive financial budget. Now in conjunction with my financial app, I’m currently using Mint but will most likely change that in the near future, I’m able to analyze every thing accordingly. One example, is diving my expenses between variable and fixed. Fixed expenses are expenses that you know won’t change month over month, while variable expenses fluctuate base on use. For example, I know my car gas is a variable expense because it depends on how much I drive per month where my mortgage is fixed because that’s locked in.
The app that I’m using to help me navigate my new plan is Qube. This app is unique in the fact that it helps you, use the old school envelope budgeting method in digital form to be more specific about your spending habits. I only use Qube strictly for my variable expenses so I have a gauge of if I’m staying within my budget.
This is a glimpse of how I planned my 2022 budget. If you would like to see a full breakdown, subscribe to our newsletter accordingly. It’s vital that individuals create a budget that they not only can follow but stick to and comprehend. You can’t have a destination without a roadmap helping you get there.
If you would like a comprehensive budget to gain clarity on your financial journey don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Our goal is to help athletes make, manage, and multiply their money through financial education and athlete empowerment.
For more information on my budgeting hack Qube use promo code: Frugal
