Personal Financial Management - Research Paper Example

Following are my observations while reviewing the plan. During the first week while I was reviewing the expenses, it was an eye opening situation that the major spending were on account of food stuff, clothing and spending leisure time. The total expenses were $1,312/- excluding my credit card payments, rental payments and groceries. I then thought for remedial measures to curtail my expenditure and sort out the problem with the fact that if I start cooking myself, search for the discounted items and spend less to spent leisure and by doing this I can not only manage my finances, live my life accordingly but also save something for the rainy day.

While reviewing the data of the second week I noted that I certainly curtail my expenses on food stuff by 33% and the overall expenses reduced from $1,312/- to $ 850/- in second week excluding my house rent and credit card payments which shows betterment and my interest towards savings, but still the major expenses were made on account of groceries where I spent $223.83/- and for spending leisure I spent $118.81. I realized that the daily log is helping me in managing my finances and I immediately checked my spending and realized that I must engage myself instead in some sports activities for spending leisure time rather to go to the massage parlor or some other places where I spend much more than sports and for the prosperous future I have to develop future goals and by realizing the importance of savings, I immediately create three stages of my future goals through which I can live a prosperous, happy and comfortable life and the stages are: Short Term Goals, Intermediate Term Goal and Long Term Goal.

Short Term Goals are those that can be achieved within a year and can increase my future saving. For e.g. If I purchase a car it will save my transportation cost and the amount which I am expensing out every week will be saved. Intermediate Term Goals are those that can be achieved with in the period of 2 to 5 years and includes things that will certainly increase my savings. For e.g. If I purchase house it will be a onetime investment but it will save my monthly mortgage installment on which I have to pay interest.

Long Term Goals are those that can be achieved after six years with no upper limit like my retirement plan which has no upper limit and more I save money during my employment, happier I will live my life after retirement. While selecting the amount which is to be expensed out on weekly basis in order to achieved the target, I set the priorities and assign education the highest priority with the weekly expense of $170/- and the total expense were of $420/- per week accumulating $1,818/- per month.

My Intermediate Goals are several including purchase of house, starting own business, education and buy a new car. For this purpose after thorough discussions with my friends, I have once again given highest priority to the education with the expense amount of $350/-per week accumulating $18,200 per year and by doing this much saving I will be able to achieve the college funds for my children by the end of 2016 i.e. in 3 ? years. My final goal is to save something for myself which can be used in case of need and this the financial plan helps me lot and by the help of the plan, I not only opted a semi retirement plan but also plan to save some thing for the cruise which I always aiming for and for the accomplishment of both the aims I have started saving $5/- per week for the cruise and $250/- per week for