Set Budget Information

Use this feature to record monthly budget plans. The budget information serves two primary purposes. First, it helps determine and plan for all financial transactions. Second, based on the information provided, any extra funds may automatically be applied towards debt repayment. 
 

Debt Analyzer > Tools > Enter Budget
    
Monthly Obligations
Monthly Budget Obligations are fixed expenditures items that occur each month and do not go away. These would include bills such as electric, phone and gas as well as rent or mortgage (if applicable).
 
Insert the name or type of obligation and the monthly expense. Best guess estimates are required for some of these expenditures while others are fixed amounts each month.
 

 
Monthly Budget Items
Monthly Budget Items are those items which are not fixed expenditures. The expenditures are flexible and include items such as Food, Entertainment, Clothing, etc.
 

 
Budget Summary
This area displays a summary of income, monthly obligations, monthly budget items, debts and hopefully a positive remaining balance.

Monthly Income
The Monthly Income must be net monthly income, not the gross. Net monthly income is the total amount of take-home pay per month.  
 
Save or Invest
Optionally insert an amount to put in savings each month or invest elsewhere.
 
Debt Payments, Obligations and Budget Items
The totals for each of these debt or expense types are displayed in the appropriate fields.
 
Balance or Apply to Debts
If using the Debt Reduction Schedule with the Extra Payment Budget option, the Apply to Debts text and balance are displayed. The balance in this field is automatically applied to the debt reduction plan and used as part of the debt payoff calculations.

 
If not using the Debt Reduction Schedule with the Extra Payment Budget option, then the remainder will just display a balance - positive or negative.  

 
Edit Menu  

Set Defaults
The Set Defaults menu item saves the current set of budget values as default values that can be recalled later. This can be helpful when preparing multiple debt plans for the same person.
   
Load Defaults
The Load Defaults menu item loads in values previously saved as defaults. This can be helpful when preparing multiple debt plans for the same person. You may wish to maintain their budget information as a default as you work on the different debt plans. 
   
Clear All
The Clear All menu item sets all budgetary items to zero. When all budgetary items are zero, they will not be used in the reports.