A budget provides a road map to help you realize your financial goals. It's a powerful tool to help you organize and control your money, set and meet goals, and decide in advance how your money will work for you. A good budget must be driven by the concept of pay yourself first. By creating a workable budget and tracking, prioritizing and reducing spending it's possible to create savings.

A budget is a written spending plan that shows how anticipated income will be allocated to meet expected expenses, create savings and pay down debt. There are varied methods and tools available for creating and managing a budget. Download worksheets for creating a spending plan, learn about different methods of budget tracking, read budgeting tips and check-out online resources to learn more about budgeting.