Not so long ago, managing personal finances involved sitting down with a paper, pen, calculator and a checkbook. All the important financial information was either written down on slips of paper meant to be stored in files and any financial planning that took place was mostly in one’s head.
Excel Spreadsheets Can Help You With Your Finances
Today many of us use Excel spreadsheets to jot down our everyday expenses or to balance our checkbook. The more computer savvy amongst us may go a step further and actually plan monthly budgets using Excel spreadsheets. However, not many are aware that Excel spreadsheets are extremely powerful tools that can help one not only in managing money but also in handling all aspects of personal finance. And even those who would like to use Excel spreadsheets for a more long-term financial planning may not have the time to first understand and then implement the full range of functions and features that Excel has to offer.
Excel Templates are thus an excellent solution – these are well-designed comprehensive spreadsheet templates offering features and tools that make it easy to manage all aspects of personal finance. Even a mere beginner will find it easy to personalize and use these templates. You can find Excel Templates for various purposes, from balancing checkbooks to working out home budgets right up to debt reduction or credit card payoff calculators.
And the best part is, many of these are available free of charge for personal use! Here are some of the more popular and free Excel Templates for managing your personal finances.
Free financial spreadsheets can save you a lot of money and time.
Personal Monthly Budget and Personal Budget Spreadsheets
(http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/personal-budget-spreadsheet.html)
(http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/personal-monthly-budget.html)
The personal monthly budget spreadsheet helps you track your income and your expenses. This helps you understand what you are actually saving every month and quickly identify areas where you may be overspending.
The personal budget spreadsheet on the other hand will allow you to plan for an entire year. If you are anticipating any major changes like purchasing a home, changing jobs, or if you are moving, you may need to make financial plans many months before. This spreadsheet will allow you to make a realistic assessment of what your financial status may be in the future.
Household Monthly Budget and Household Budget Spreadsheets
(http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/monthly-household-budget.html)
(http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/home-budget-worksheet.html)
With a family, the number and nature of expenses changes. You may have to budget for children’s expenses, pets, vacations as also make more long-term planning. The above spreadsheets will help you set goals for yourself, note down your income and expenses, and understand whether you are achieving the financial goals you had set for yourself.
Debt Reduction Calculator
(http://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/debt-reduction-calculator.html)
This spreadsheet will help you eliminate various kinds of debt more systematically. You can use it to eliminate credit card debt, auto loans or student loans. In the first worksheet, you will be asked to enter details of the various loans you have to repay, choose the amount you are able to repay every month and then see a comprehensive summary of the results. You can analyze the best way monthly credit card payment plan for you.
In the next worksheet, you will be provided with a detailed payment schedule that you can take a printout of and keep it for ready reference. By using this payment schedule to make payments and to keep track of your progress, you will manage to pay off your debts in a more disciplined manner.
Loan Amortization Schedule
(http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC010197771033.aspx?pid=CT101172751033)
You will be able to keep track of when and what payments you need to make towards your home mortgage by using the loan amortization schedule. You will need to enter some basic details like loan amount, the period of loan, the interest rate, date of first payment and how often the payments have to be made. You can use the spreadsheet to keep track of all the payments made so far and know at any point of time what the outstanding amount is. Further, you will also be able to calculate what kind of effect making additional payments will have on the interest to be paid and how quickly you will be able to pay off the loan.
Retirement Spreadsheets
(http://www.retireearlyhomepage.com/softlist.html)
These retirement spreadsheets allow you to calculate the amount needed to retire in comfort and also what you will need to save if you are planning on an early retirement.
Photo Credt: Life in LDN & Menage a Moi
This guest post was written by Hadar Kadar. Hadar works for Cogniview, the _PDF to excel converter people_ [http://cogniview.com]
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