Westpac’s budget planner is a simple personal online calculator designed to help you run the sums on your incomings and outgoings. It’s all about keeping your personal financial management process simple and accurate. Here’s how it works.
Our budget planner takes into account your incomings – that’s the money you have coming in, as well as what’s going out – yes, your outgoings on regular bills and expenses.
By looking at your income and expenses, you’ll be able to work out where your money is going and if you’re spending more or less than you can afford. Here’s how:
The most obvious stream of income is likely to be your salary or wages. It also includes any student payments, pensions, or other allowances. You can select the frequency you get paid (so your weekly, fortnightly, or monthly income). Don't forget to enter your net income (actual income after tax, or your 'take home pay').
There’s also room to input investment income (from interest, dividends or rent), allowances, and other income. An example might be from a side hustle, or selling goods you no longer use on a second-hand marketplace.
Next, input all your outgoings. Some of these may seem obvious, like your mortgage or rent as well as electricity and other utilities. Others might need a bit more consideration, such as how much you spend on going out, or lunch, or train and bus fares.
The budget planner starts with motor vehicle or transport expenses, then moves on to living expenses, insurance, loans, debts and credit cards, taxes and fees, then discretionary spending on leisure and entertainment.
The Westpac budget planner uses a detailed list of possible expenses so it might prompt you to include some other expenses you may otherwise have forgotten. You could look at your bank statements to get a good idea of what your expenses look like.
The last step of the budget planner is to look at your results. Once you’ve included all your incomings and expenses, the planner can add them up and let you know exactly how much money you have left over once all your expenses are covered.
If you find you’ve got more money going out than you have coming in, you can use the planner to identify where you could make savings.
Now you know how to use the planner, it’s important to know how to get the most out of it. Below are some common questions about how to best use the planner:
If you’re not sure, it’s absolutely OK to estimate your expenses. Life is fluid, so your budget planning needs to be, too. It's more important to set a realistic budget so you have enough money in each category to live your life and reach your financial goals. While precision is ideal, estimated numbers for variable expenses will do the job.
This is completely up to you. If you have regular, ongoing expenses that are set for the next six or 12 months, input them as fixed expenses so that you can start to build a long-term picture.
For variable expenses, you could try planning a month in advance, taking into consideration key events such as holidays, gifts, or big bills. The key is to establish a timeframe that works for your needs and commitments. And don’t forget to give yourself some wiggle room!
Building a budget plan isn’t a one-off, ‘set and forget’ task. Your financial circumstances may evolve, so your planner should too. It's important to take into account that a change in personal circumstances, such as a new job, a change in income, moving home, a new baby, or a new business will impact the accuracy of the planner.
Updating your budget template regularly – for example on a monthly basis – will ensure it reflects your current financial reality. It also means you’ll be more aware of what’s going on and able to make adjustments as necessary to stay on track.
Beyond its role in expense tracking, the budget spreadsheet can be a handy tool to help identify potential savings. The planner’s analysis helps provide clarity on spending patterns, enabling you to pinpoint areas where adjustments can be made.
Being able to see where you spend money should help create a more conscious and intentional approach to spending, helping you reach your savings goals.
It’s not just the budget planner, there’s a suite of tools in the Westpac App to help with budgeting.
You can get an accurate picture on your device that shows ins and outs across different categories to help manage your spend across each category. You can also see cash flow updates to show how you’re tracking each month, and a 12-month interactive summary to highlight trends by month.
If you’re not a Westpac customer yet, you can apply online in minutes for Westpac Choice, an everyday bank account with full access to the budget tracking and insights in the mobile app.
Budget planning is a life essential – it gives you the know-how, confidence and control to keep your incomings and outgoings front of mind.
Not only is the Westpac budget planner a handy tool to find out if you’re spending more or less money than you’ve got coming in, it may help you stay on top of your finances, create a stronger financial position, and show if you could set money aside to work towards your goals.
