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Budgeting for Your Investment Property--A Guest Post


Summary: this article takes a look at the importance of budgeting when investing in realty and who can help you establish and stick to a budget.

(I accept guest posts.  This is a guest post and I am not recommending the companies that are represented by the links.  I have not researched them in more than a cursorily manner to just determine they are not offensive to my personal taste.  Posting the article is not to be seen as a endorsement of any kind except I thought it was worth reading.)



Propertyinvestment can be a huge financial risk, especially to those who haven’t established a well-planned budget.  In fact, having a well thought out budget is an essential component to owning and keeping and investment property.

Detailed below are the reasons why you should plan out a budget, those professionals who can help you establish a budget and some helpful tips on how to stick to your budget.

The Importance of Budgeting

Bad financial decisions are the root cause of many failed property investments. People often over stretch themselves financially, either on the sales price, or by taking out a loan that they will be hard pressed to pay back, or by neglecting to calculate the upkeep costs of the property. Having a budget can help you avoid all these situations.

The purpose of a budget is to help you understand what you can afford to spend on a property and what its maintenance costs and are likely to be. It can help you plan out and keep track of your loan repayments, taking into account your expected profits, and how such profits can be used to help pay off your loan and upkeep costs.

Getting Professional Help with Your Budget

It is always advised, when thinking of investing in property, that you seek help from a financial adviser as looming loans and multiple repayments, combined with incoming profits, can be overwhelming.

When seeking financial advice, regardless of whether you go to your bank, a home lender, or an accountant, it’s essential that your financial adviser has a background in property investment. This is to ensure that any financial advice given is tailored to establishing a budget that is efficient and practical for investing in property.

Financial advisers, with experience in investment property, have the necessary know-how and often use property valuationsoftware programs. They can help you organise the frequency of your loan repayments, the property’s upkeep costs and your property’s projected profits and exponential growth.

Seeking out good financial advice can help you work out the most efficient and effective budget for your specific investment property needs.

Tips on Sticking to Your Budget

Having a great budget is only half the battle — it’s sticking to your budget that’s really going to test your resolve! Below are some handy tips on how to stick to and survive your budget:

1.     Always keep the end goal in mind!
It’s easy to lose your self in the costs of day-to-day living. So, it’s handy to continuously remind yourself of why you are keep a budget.

2.     Keeping track of your spending.
Monitoring your outflow of cash will help you see where your money is going. This may reveal areas in your life where you can reduce your spending and, perhaps, invest a greater portion into achieving the goals of your budget.

3.     Resist spending money on unimportant things.
Unfortunately, when budgeting, you have to always ask yourself — do I need this? Will this make it harder for me to reach the goals of my budget? So it’s good to keep your spending on things that you don’t need to a minimum.

4.      Prepare for changes in your circumstances.
Sometimes life throws us a curve ball and we can get hit with a host of unexpected expenses, like emergency surgery, or insurance payments etc. Changes in your financial circumstances might require you to revaluate your budget. This is why it is also good to be careful with your spending on unnecessary things. It’s better to have extra cash saved just in case the unexpected happens.



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