What is a cash flow and why is it important?
Cash flow is more than just a budget. It is an essential financial planning tool that allows you to clearly see how your income and expenses behave over time. Unlike a one-dimensional budget, cash flow has two dimensions: the amount of money you spend and when you spend it.
Why is a traditional budget insufficient?
Traditional budgets often assume that all income and expenses occur simultaneously over time. This is a simplification that does not reflect the reality of our day-to-day finances. Life is rarely that regular. Income may come in at different times of the month, and expenses do not occur evenly. A cash flow allows you to see these variations and plan accordingly.
How does a cash flow work?
Cash flow provides you with daily tracking of your money. It starts with a beginning balance for the day to which you add the day's income, subtract savings and expenses, thus obtaining the ending balance. This ending balance becomes the next day's starting balance, and so on. This procedure gives you a detailed view of your financial habits and helps you identify potential cash flow problems before they occur.
How to prepare an effective cash flow?
An effective cash flow requires more than just imagination, it is the tool that can give you clarity and control over your finances, helping you avoid surprises and prepare your expenses effectively.
What information do you need to get started?
To begin, you should have a detailed list of all your income and expenses at hand. This includes:
- Regular and sporadic income: Identify all income and its dates of receipt.
- Fixed expenses: Record payment dates for utilities such as telephone, electricity, water, etc.
- Credit payments: Record dates of credit card payments and other financial commitments.
How is a cash flow structured?
The cash flow should be as specific as possible. Ideally, it would be a daily record that allows you to see where the financial mismatches are. This can be managed by a spreadsheet that makes it easy to add, subtract and plan effectively.
Why does every date matter?
The day you make an expense or receive income can have a big impact on your financial situation. Cash flow helps you visualize those differences and adjust your expenses to optimize your daily balance.
How to improve the use of cash flow?
Implementing a cash flow can transform the way you approach your personal finances. It acts as a dynamic snapshot of your financial situation, allowing you to make informed decisions.
What is the benefit of tracking it daily or weekly?
Tracking daily or, at most, weekly provides you with an accurate picture of your financial situation in real time. Although it may seem overwhelming, performing this exercise reveals patterns in your finances that might otherwise go unnoticed.
What obstacles might you face?
Lack of habit or an initial perception of complexity can hold many back. But, at the same time, overcoming them and adopting active financial planning puts you in control in ways that traditional budgeting cannot.
How does a cash flow help you use credit better?
By clearly visualizing your finances and understanding when and why you spend, you can avoid unnecessarily relying on credit as an extension of your income. Instead, you can use credit as a strategic tool within your real means.
I invite everyone, both novices and veterans in financial management, to adopt cash flow as the foundation of their personal financial strategy. In the next lesson, we will work together on a practical exercise using Excel to create your first cash flow. Control of your finances is just around the corner!
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