How to collect household expenses?
Household daily expenses
Daily expense account is the first account and the most critical account in family financial management. Pay attention to the division of income and expenditure, and distinguish which specific account flows in or out. Decomposition of comprehensive income and expenditure items. For example, an expenditure is divided into living expenses, leisure and interest expenses. This makes it easy to check the account balance, make statistical summary analysis of different accounts, and clearly understand the details of the flow of family funds.
Generally speaking, a family's daily income and expenditure can be co-ordinated with the following accounts: cash used by the family (reserve fund), cash in the hands of family members, demand deposits, credit cards and personal checks.
Don't delay in making daily expense accounts. It is best to keep accounts in time after the income and expenditure occur. This can prevent omissions, because after a long time, it is likely to forget this income and expenditure, and even if it can be remembered, it is easy to produce errors in the amount. This inaccurate accounting record loses the meaning of bookkeeping. In addition, timely bookkeeping can ensure real-time monitoring of account balance, such as credit card overdraft. If it is found that the account is overdrawn or the balance is insufficient, timely handling can reduce unnecessary interest expenses or fines.
Family trading account
After doing a good job of daily income and expenditure accounts, we should start to pay attention to other investment transactions, such as fund accounts, national debt accounts and so on. Different types of transactions should correspond to different accounts. This is completely in line with the bookkeeping principle of daily expenses. All investment transactions should be recorded in this account. For example, time deposits should be recorded in the deposit and withdrawal records, and insurance should explain the payment of premiums, the payment of claims, the return of premiums, dividends, etc.
Family budget account
Bookkeeping is just the beginning, in order to make a better budget. Family budget is a plan for family income and expenditure in a certain period in the future. The premise of doing this account well is that there is already a daily expense account and a trading account. Refer to the past income and expenditure and investment, compare the actual and budget of various expenditures on a regular basis (such as the end of the month, the end of the season and the end of the year), and find out those expenditure items and balance items that exceed the standard. The next budget is also adjusted accordingly to ensure the realization of family financial management goals.
The budget pays attention to the family's financial goals, because most of them are related to accumulating funds. The use of household budget accounts can be used to monitor the realization of surplus funds. Without this budget plan, it is difficult to achieve the financial goals set at the beginning, whether in the long or short term. Because the family income is basically fixed, the family budget is mainly to make a good expenditure budget. Expenditure budget is divided into controllable budget and uncontrollable budget, such as rent, public utility expenditure, mortgage interest, etc. The monthly household, communication and transportation expenses are controllable. We should plan these expenses well, spend money reasonably and cost-effectively, and keep the monthly savings available for investment at the same level, so as to achieve the financial management goal faster and more efficiently.
The role of household expenditure bookkeeping
Improve financial management
Bookkeeping is the basis of family financial management. It monitors and controls family financial activities and financial processes, collects basic data of financial management activities, and provides basic information for various statements needed in the future. Without these data, financial activities such as setting financial goals, formulating strategies, preparing budgets, implementing budgets, and analyzing results cannot be carried out.
Starting from the daily bookkeeping, we can not only easily understand the family's financial situation, but also prepare for future planning by digitally tabulating our financial situation. Simply put, bookkeeping is the first step in financial management.
Family bookkeeping can grasp the income and expenditure of individuals or families and plan consumption and investment reasonably.
Financial revenue and expenditure is the basis of achieving financial management objectives. How do you know your financial situation? Bookkeeping is a good way. Know your own financial situation and make various financial decisions conveniently. Whether it's buying big commodities, spending by stages or making various investment plans, it's a foundation to master your current financial situation of revenue and expenditure.
The most direct function of bookkeeping is to find out the specific situation of income and expenditure. See how much you earn, how much you spend and where you spend it. You can also know how much it costs to maintain a normal daily life, and the rest can be considered for consumption and investment. Record your income and expenses one by one and make a summary at the end of each month. Over time, you will know your financial situation like the back of your hand.
For example, how much monthly mortgage repayment is reasonable depends on how much balance you can have each month. If you earn 5000 yuan a month, you don't think it's a problem to pay back 2000 yuan, but you may find that you can only save 1000 yuan a month after bookkeeping. Therefore, only by understanding these, can we talk about financial management and investment and make reasonable plans for future consumption and investment.
Cultivate consumption habits
As the saying goes, how to control expenditure at the most reasonable level is also an important part of financial management. Bookkeeping can also analyze your own expenses, understand which expenses are necessary and which expenses are dispensable, so as to arrange expenses more reasonably. Help us control expenditure and smart consumption, improve our balance of payments, and provide sufficient funds for our investment and financial management.
The "moonlight clan" is not all about making less money and spending less, so it is often impossible to spend rationally. When we clearly record where our money is spent, we can analyze whether our money is worth it, thus reducing irrational consumption. Mastering a family's daily income and expenditure helps to become a rational consumer.
Promote family harmony
Sociologists have found that economic disputes are one of the important reasons for family breakdown, especially in large families with many members, and the expenses of daily life need to be borne by the main members of the family. If you don't do family accounts for a long time, you will inevitably suspect each other or blame the housekeeper for being eccentric. If there is a family ledger, it is clear at a glance who earned how much and who spent how much, and the family naturally has nothing to say.
Record life changes
Like keeping a diary, we can also see the development and changes of society through family bookkeeping and enhance our sense of social responsibility. If we insist on family bookkeeping for decades, we can also see the footprints of foreign social and economic development through the changes in family income and expenditure.
Memo function
Borrowing money from relatives and friends, accompanying people to give gifts is generally not written, and it will inevitably be forgotten after a long time. Family bookkeeping, you can have accounts to check and know fairly well. Besides, bookkeeping can also help us with our daily business, including paying bills on time.
Main steps of family bookkeeping
Collect documents
Centralized vouchers and documents are the primary work of bookkeeping, and ordinary consumption should form the habit of asking for invoices. Store shopping receipts, invoices, loan documents, bank withholding documents, credit card bills, bank credit card statements, deposit and withdrawal documents in a fixed place on weekdays. Write down clearly the items such as consumption time, amount and product name on the invoice received. If the product name is not marked on the document, it is best to add it immediately. After the vouchers are collected, they are classified according to the nature of consumption, and each item is arranged in date order to facilitate future statistics.
Detailed classification of income and expenditure
The second step of family bookkeeping, which is also the biggest doorway for personal bookkeeping, is to classify the monthly income and expenditure details. Some people who just got married or started bookkeeping don't know what to remember, others don't classify, and they are purely "running accounts". It's no use keeping such an account. In order to make the income and expenditure of the family clear and easy to analyze, it is necessary to keep accounts in different categories.
Generally speaking, in family bookkeeping, income should be divided into: salary (including the basic salary of the whole family, various subsidies, etc. ), generally refers to fixed income; Bonus, this income is generally variable in the family; Interest and investment income (interest, dividends, fund dividends, stock trading income, etc.). ); What's more, this is not a small accidental income, such as manuscript fees and competition awards.
Expenditure may also have four detailed items: living expenses (including household necessities, rent, property fees, utilities, telephone bills and other daily expenses. ); Clothing (the cost of purchasing clothing or cloth and processing for families); Savings (part of the balance of payments used to increase deposits and buy funds and stocks). Others (reflecting unnecessary and irregular consumption in family life, etc. Each family can also make corresponding adjustments to the project according to its own "family situation", such as increasing "medical expenses", supporting parents, "intellectual investment" and so on.
Financial analysis budget
The last step of family bookkeeping is to analyze the monthly income and expenditure and make the expenditure budget for next month. Expenditure budget can basically be divided into controllable budget and uncontrollable budget, such as rent, public utility expenditure, mortgage interest and so on. The monthly expenses of household, communication and transportation are controllable, and planning is the key to control these controllable expenses. Through the budget, we can also predict the scale of idle funds, and it is easy to determine the total purchase amount when investing, such as buying stocks, funds, government bonds, etc., to ensure that the invested funds will not be withdrawn because they need to pay the living expenses, which will damage the rate of return.