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Select this option to display the Budget Forecaster entry screen.

Plan Budget

Select this option to display the My Family Budget work page.  You'll use this work page to set up and maintain your monthly budgets.  See Section 3 - Your Budget for more information.

Reset Budget

Use this selection to remove current entries based on the month that you specify.  See Section 3 - Your Budgetfor more information.

View Report: % Income

Select this option to view an Expense to Total Incomes Ratio report.  This report shows individual budget items as the percentage of your total income.  For example, to learn what percentage of

your annual income that your mortgage payments comprise, you would select this report. See Section 4 - Your Income for more information.

View Report: % Expenses

Select this option to display an Expense to Total Expenses report that shows the percentage of estimated expenses versus actual expenses incurred based on information you've entered in your My Family Budget work page.  See Section 5 - Your Expenses for more information. 

View Chart: % Income

Select this option to view an Expense to Total Incomes chart.  This chart graphically displays budget items as the percentage of your total income.  For example, to learn what percentage of your total income that your cell phone bill comprises, you would select this report. See Section 4 - Your Income for more information.

View Chart: % Expenses

Select this option to display a chart that illustrates the percentage of estimated expenses versus actual expenses incurred based on information you've entered in your My Family Budget work page.  See Section 5 - Your Expenses for more information. 

Print Budget

Use this option to print the budget you created using the Plan Budget selection.  You can print an entire budget, full-year budget or budget by month. See Section 3 - Your Budgetfor more information.

Print Report: % Income

Select this option to print an Expense to Total Incomes Ratio report.  For instance, you could use this report to determine the percentage of your annual income that was comprised of auto insurance payments.  See Section 4 - Your Incomefor more information. 

Print Report: % Expenses

Select this option to print an Expense to Total Expenses report.  This report estimated expenses as compared to actual expenses for the full year. See Section 5 - Your Expenses for more information.

Net Worth Statement

Use this work page to determine your net worth.  Net worth is defined as your total assets minus your total liabilities. See Section 6 - Creating a Net Worth Statementfor more information.

Financial Ratios

Select this option to display the Financial Ratios work page.  This page displays information about the following:

• Basic Liquidity - the number of months a household could meet current expenses using liquid assets (such as cash, checking, savings and certificates of deposit) without additional income.
• Debt-to-asset ratio - determines your liabilities (debts) compared to the value of your assets
• Debt payment to income ratio - the ability to make current payments.

See Section 7 - Reviewing Financial Ratios for more information.

Life Insurance Needs

Select this option to display the Life Insurance Needs work page.  Use this work page to determine how much life insurance you need in order to protect your beneficiaries' financial security.  See Section 8 - Determining Your Life Insurance Needs for more information.

Retirement Needs

Select this option to display the Retirement Needs work page.  Use this work page to determine how much money you will need to save each month in order to meet your retirement goals.  See Section 9 - Determining Your Retirement Needs for more information.

Calculator

Select this option to display an online calculator.

Mortgage Calculator

Use the Mortgage Calculator to find out your monthly mortgage payment based on principal, down payment, mortgage interest rate and terms (number of years) of the mortgage.  See Section 10 - Using the Mortgage Calculator for more information.

About Budget Forecaster

Displays a dialog box which shows the version number of the Budget Forecaster software that you are using, as well as the website and email addresses for Forecaster Software.

Help

Click to display the Quick Help dialog box that contains information about the most frequently-used Budget Forecaster features.  To display the Budget Forecaster User Guide, click the More Help button.

Exit Budget Forecaster

Click to exit the Budget Forecaster application.

1

To display the Plan Budget work page, click Budget Forecaster in the top left corner, select Plan Budget. The My Family Budget Statement work page displays.

TIP

You can change the name of this work page from the default (My Family Budget Statement) by clicking on the first cell in the name in the function field, directly above the name. Budget Forecaster also lets you change the names of some fields as displayed below:

2.

First, you need to enter Income information.  From the Quick Plan Budget pulldown list on the left side of the work page, select Enter Family Income.  The Annual After-Tax Income work sheet displays. 

Enter income information. Note that you can enter information only in the month-related income fields. You cannot change information in the After-Tax Income or Annual columns or Total After Tax Income rows.  Budget Forecaster automatically calculates after-tax income and annual income totals.

Here's a sample Annual After-Tax Income work page.

3.

When you've entered all income information, click the Back to Budget button.

4.

Enter your estimated expenses for the selected month. From the Quick Plan Budget pulldown list, select Enter <Month> Expense, where Month is the month for which you want to add expenses.

5.

The work page for the month displays.  Enter all estimated expenses. 

6.

At the end of the month, replace the estimated expenses that you entered with your actual expenses, Budget Forecaster will use this information to calculate Net Worth (see Section 6) and Financial Ratios (see Section 7).

7.

Repeat for each month throughout the year.

1

To print your budget, click Budget Forecaster in the top left corner, select Print Budget. When the report is displayed, click the Print button at the top of the screen.   

2.

The Print Option dialog box displays.

If you want to change the report name, enter the new name in the field at the top of the screen.

Select the report(s) to be printed.  If you want to print all the reports listed, click the Select All button and each report is selected. 

3.

Click the Print button

1

To reset your budget, click Budget Forecaster in the top left corner, select Reset Budget. When the report is displayed, click the Print button at the top of the screen.

2.

The Reset Budget dialog box displays.  From the pulldown list, select a month or quarter to reset, or select Reset Income to remove the income information that is currently displayed.

3.

Click OK. At the prompt, click Yes.  A message displays indicating the information has been reset.

NOTE:

• This report is view-only; you cannot make changes to the contents of the report. To make changes to data displayed, you must edit the My Family Budget Statement work page (see Section 3 - Your Budget) for more information.

• For full year reports, deficits are displayed for each month in which the deficit occurred. Deficits appear in parenthesis in red typeface. Example:($555.00)

NOTE:

• This report is view-only; you cannot make changes to the contents of the report. To make changes to data displayed, you must edit the My Family Budget Statement work page (see Section 3 - Your Budget) for more information.
• For full year reports, deficits are displayed for each month in which the deficit occurred. Deficits appear in parenthesis in red typeface. Example:($555.00)

NOTE:

You can change the values that appear in any field with a yellow background.  For more detail about a field, click the red corner of the field. 

Here's an example:

 
Fields with blue backgrounds are automatically calculated by Budget Forecaster.

1

Note the various sections of the work page:

Liquid - Enter information for assets, such as cash, checking accounts, and savings accounts, which are easily accessible (or "liquid").

Short-Term - Enter short-term debts in this section.

Tangible - If you are a homeowner, enter the appraised market value of your home in the Home field.  Enter market values of other property and automobiles in this section.  

Long-Term - Enter outstanding balances in the fields in this section. 

Investment - Enter investment assets as applicable. 

NOTE:

For all sections with Other fields, you can customize any of these fields by placing your cursor on the field and typing over the text with the new name.

2.

To print this work page, click the Print button.

NOTE:

You can change the values that appear in any field with a yellow background.  For more detail about a field, click the red corner of the field.

Here's an example:

Fields with blue backgrounds are automatically calculated by Budget Forecaster.

NOTE:

You can change the values that appear in any field with a yellow background.  For more detail about a field, click the red corner of the field.

Here's an example:

Fields with blue backgrounds are automatically calculated by Budget Forecaster.

1

Follow the instructions for each field, noting the following:

Line 2 - In the chart, locate the number of years that beneficiary income will be needed.  Enter the associated factor in this field.  For example, if your beneficiaries would require income for the 30 years, you would enter a factor of 21.22.

2.

To print this work page, click the Print button.

NOTE:

You can change the values that appear in any field with a yellow background.  For more detail about a field, click the red corner of the field.

Here's an example:

Fields with blue backgrounds are automatically calculated by Budget Forecaster.

1

Follow the instructions for each field in the work page, noting the following:

• Line 5 - In the chart, locate the age at which you plan to retire. Enter the factor for that age in the field.
  
  
• Line 11 - In the chart, locate the number of years closest to when you plan to retire. For example, if you plan to retire at age 70 and you are 40 years old, enter the factor (in this case, 4.32) in the field.

• Line 14 - In the chart, locate the number of years closest to when you plan to retire. Using the above example, if you plan to retire at age 70 and you are 40 years old, enter the factor (in this case, 66.44).

• Line 15 - Based on the information you've entered in all previous field on this screen, this is the amount of money that you need to save each in order to reach your retirement goal.

2.

To print this work page, click the Print button.

1.

From the toolbar displayed in the top left corner, select Mortgage Calculator from the Budget Forecaster pulldown menu.

2.

In the Principal field, enter the amount of the mortgage principal. Enter your Down Payment. This is the initial upfront portion of the payment you will make on your mortgage loan. Note that the Mortgage amount is automatically calculated.

3.

Enter the Interest Rate for your mortgage.  Enter the length of the loan (in years). Note that the Months amount is automatically calculated.

4.

Click the Calculate button to display your Monthly Payment.  Here's an example of a mortgage calculation.

1.

After purchasing the software, download the software when prompted. Save the expernsetrackerv1.exe file to your desktop or to a specific folder (note that you must create the folder).

2.

Double click on the expernsetrackerv1.exe file and follow the prompts. Once installation is complete, you will find an Expense Tracker.xls shortcut on your desktop.

3.

Double click the Expense Tracker.xls shortcut to open the program. For software help instructions, visit http://www.strativia.com/Admin//.

1.

When you open Expense Tracker, the program automatically displays the Weekly Expense Tracker screen.

2.

Enter your name, address, city, state and Zip Code in the applicable fields at the top of the screen.

3.

Select a year from the applicable pull down menu as shown in the example below.

4.

Select a month from the applicable pull down menu as shown in the example below:

5.

Note that when you select the month/year combination, Expense Tracker automatically displays the selected month/day combination.

6.

You're ready to enter expenses in the applicable field(s).  Using the example above, if you had a Breakfast expense of $.5.75 on Thursday, May 5^th; you'd enter that value in the Breakfast row for the Thu 5/5/05 column.

Note you can change the Other Expenses field by placing your cursor on the field and typing over the text with your new Expense Item name.

Enter all your expenses. Expense Tracker automatically calculates totals by day and expense item.  Here's an example of expenses for a week.

To move ahead to another week, click the applicable Week tab at the bottom of the screen.

7.

To display a breakdown of your total expenses for the month, click the Month Summary tab. A breakdown, such as the one below, is displayed

The columns on the left side of the screen show expense items for the month.  A weekly total shows how much you spent for each item per week, while a percentage total shows how much of that expense made up the total percentage of your weekly spending.

The pie chart on the right side of the screen gives you a way to quickly identify spending trends. For instance, in the example above, groceries made up the largest expenditure for the month.