Which App you Should Use to Budget Your Income, Expenses and Cashflow Efficiently?

Homebudget - Ahmed Al Kiremli 0

Most people today are experiencing big financial problems because they simply do not know how to budget their expenses. They do not know how much they are spending. While most people know how much they are making, many do not know how much they are spending. Having a budget is an absolute must if you want to pay down your debts or take control of your expenses, grow financially, and invest more wisely.

 

I have always said that if you want to grow your money, you need to invest in multiple sources of income specially the sources that work for you without exchanging your time for money. You need to begin by investing 10% of your income and over time, you grow financially by eventually investing 90% of your income while only spending 10% of your income. This is because your money and income are increasing and you no longer need the majority of it for living.

Homebudget - Ahmed Al Kiremli

The majority of middle class people today are living on between $1,000 and $10,000 per month. Regardless of how much money you make, it is important to budget your money. I use an app called Home Budget, which is a paid app, for budgeting my own money. This is actually the most used app on my iPhone because I use it to plug in whatever expenses I have. Whether it is buying cinema tickets, paying the check at a restaurant, or spending money on anything else, I just log it and enter the expense.

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This app also allows you to create different accounts. For instance, you can use it to create accounts for your different credit cards, personal accounts, investment accounts, etc. When you spend money, you just enter the expense in the account where the money went out, sometimes you pay money on behalf of your business also you can input that in the app so you will not forget how much you have paid on behalf of your company, the app will show you how much balance in each account or credit card is left and so many other details that gives you a clear understanding of your personal and business financial situation so you can take the right decisions and control your business and life in a wiser way.

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You can also set up categories for money you spend, such as rent, groceries, auto, insurance, medical, business, etc. Home Budget allows you to set up as many categories as you want and add some logos for each category so you can differentiate it from other categories.

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It’s very easy to use and you just plug in whatever amount you spend into the proper category or input the income that you have received into any of your accounts. There is also a calculator that you can use to assist you, which can be helpful for exchange rates. When you pull up the app to enter an amount, it automatically goes to today’s date, you select the correct category and the account from which the money came. You also have the ability to add notes regarding what you are spending, which makes it easy to remember certain items plus you can see and compare different monthly reports to track your financial performance and cash flow.

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Additionally, you can split expenses. For example, suppose you want to pay three months of rent in advance and you want to divide the expense over those three months for budgeting purposes, the app will split the expense for you. Also, the app has a section for bills that you can place on the calendar and pay from the correct accounts automatically. I can even enter due date for bills, such as my credit cards, so I know when those payments are due. There is also a section for income where you can enter income when it is received or you can make it automatic, which can be helpful if you have payments that come in automatically. It will also allow you to enter cash as income.

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One of the great aspects of this app is that you can see how much income you have and how much you have spent. The target budget section of the app allows you to budget monthly for certain expenses and then you can confirm how much you have for expenses versus your income, so you know how much you have left to spend.

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You can even have sections for different accounts so that you can shift money between accounts, such as a cash account and an investment account. If you need to do so, it will also allow you to extract expenses onto an Excel spreadsheet. Another great option is the ability to have a list of payees. This app will also allow you to review reports for different months and even surf for certain expenses. One of the ways in which I use this app is to track my accounts, especially for my business and know how much money I have to plan the coming bills.

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As you can see, Home Budget offers a lot of different functions, which is why it is the most used app on my iPhone. It allows me to merge my entire financial system and understand how to schedule cash flow and how to stay on track with my budget. I highly recommend this app, particularly for anyone who wants to be more organized financially and make wise decisions.

Please share with us the tools and techniques that you use to budget your finances and cashflow.

 

 

 

 

Saving Time and Avoiding Frustration with Mall Parking

parking hack - ahmed al kiremli -

Have you ever wondered what you can do when you go to the mall on the weekend and parking is limited? This is usually the busiest time of the week for malls and you can often drive around the parking lot multiple times looking for an available parking spot. Not only is this frustrating but it also wastes your time. Fortunately, I have found a convenient solution to this problem that allows me to avoid the crowded parking lot and save time.

Why Should You Lead a TV Free Lifestyle?

Ahmed Al Kiremli - stop watching tv

While many people spend significant amounts of time today watching television, it’s been about 4 or 5 years since I stopped watching TV. I first decided to stop watching the news because it seemed as though there was always something bad going on and it was simply depressing. Later on, I noticed that many productive people all shared the same habit of not watching TV. Eventually, I did decide to buy a TV after I moved to my new flat 14 months ago, a really big one, but opted not to have the cable service hooked up to it, so I could only mirror the screen of my Mac or iPhone through apple TV to watch online courses, movies or some entertainment shows just to relax for an hour or two per day. I suppose that it could be argued that I still watch TV, but the difference is actually that now I am choosing to watch only what I want.

 

The question is really one of addiction over entertainment. There is certainly nothing wrong with taking a break during the day to get away from work and simply relax. Everyone needs to take a break. Not having cable service has allowed me to choose whatever I want to watch, from YouTube or from my own computer to mirror whatever it is that I want to watch. Now, I can just watch directly whatever interests me, with no commercials and less cost.

 

In addition, I never have to wait for something to come on that I want to watch. I never waste time flipping through channels while trying to find something that I want. Once you reach that point, it really has become an addiction. That is what most people end up doing and it can be extremely addicting.

Ahmed Al Kiremli - Be Efficient with TV free lifestyle

Furthermore, it eventually kills your productivity and creativity. You think less for yourself and grow less and less happy. Some people will often say, “Well, I only watch something educational like Discovery Channel.” That’s not really the point. Television is designed to get you in the habit of watching many things that you have not intended to watch or benefit from or even enjoy and over time, it becomes addictive.

 

For me, it has been tremendously advantageous to simply stop watching. I am more productive and happier. I have also found that watching less TV also makes you more social because it gives you more time to communicate with family and friends. One of the other benefits of living a TV free lifestyle is that you have more time to exercise. You even eat less when you watch less TV. When you spend significant amounts of time watching TV, it encourages you to continue putting something in your mouth. After all, that is precisely what commercials are designed to do, make you want things.

 

In the end, I have found that a TV free lifestyle makes you far more efficient and actually helps you to lead a higher quality life.

How to Instantly Improve your Upload and Download Rate of Speed on Dropbox

ahmed al kiremli dropbox

Dropbox has made it significantly easier to conduct business and exchange all types of files. It is a service that I highly recommend and use frequently for all types of projects, check this blog post for more about Dropbox. One problem that I discovered that I was having a very slow service while trying to upload large files, particularly videos. This proved to be especially problematic while I was uploading and downloading at the same time. I noticed that when I downloaded movies to my computer, it was very faster than the videos that I was trying to upload. The problem was that the videos that I uploaded for my video editor were taking 2-3 days to upload. I would go back and check and it would show that there was still a couple of days left remaining. This was not efficient.

I discovered that by default, Dropbox actually places a limit on the bandwidth for your uploaded files. The reason they do this is so that there is no interference regarding the bandwidth for your Internet service while you are uploading or downloading files. If you want to change that setting so that you can upload large files faster; however, it is possible to do so.

In order to change that setting, you need to go to the preferences for Dropbox and then go to Network. From there, you can change the setting for the bandwidth. Once you are there, you will see that there is an upload rate as well as a download rate. Usually Dropbox automatically throttles itself to 75% of your maximum upload speed to prevent any noticeable slowdown in browsing. Downloads are performed at the fastest download speed available. This is why it was taking so long to upload large video files for my video editor. To resolve this problem, I simply changed the setting for the upload limit to Don’t Limit. Immediately, I noticed a significant difference in the speed at which I was able to upload files, even large video files, and remember that by removing the limits from the upload speed it will effect the speed of browsing and other activities that you are performing at your computer so you can use this option if you want urgently to upload certain files.

ahmed al kiremli Dropbox download and upload speed

Another solution is to test your internet download and upload speed by using one of the online tools that you can find through Google, then contact your internet service provider and check their other packages and prices for increasing your internet download and upload speed.

One thing that is important to understand is that if you are going to be doing something that requires a significant amount of bandwidth, such as a video interview or a video call via Skype while you are uploading files, then you will need to pause Dropbox while you are doing that so that you are able to enjoy the service without any interruption. Whenever you are finished, you can then unpause Dropbox so that it will resume your upload.