More Health, More Wellth

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Week 1 | Sept. 18, 2023

Welcome to More Health, More Wellth!

Strategies and resources to support your financial health

Week 1: Building a budget

Week 2: Nutrition on a budget

Week 3: Fitness on a budget

Week 4: Building credit and saving for your future

Look for More Health, More Wellth emails and texts on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Exercise your budgeting muscles to achieve financial health

Five easy steps for creating or updating a healthy budget

When we follow the same exercise routine for a while we might stop seeing results unless we make an adjustment to our plan. Staying in shape financially also begins with a plan—a budget.

This week we will be sharing step-by-step strategies and resources to help you build a budget.

Now is a great time to create a budget, or review one you already have, for ways to improve your financial performance.

Step 1: List your income

This can be done on paper, spreadsheet or budgeting software. Include after-tax income from all sources that you get regularly, both part- and full-time. If some pay is irregular, use an average of the past 3–6 months. If you share finances with someone, be sure to list both incomes.

Helpful tip: Check out the Internal Revenue Service’s tax withholding estimator to see if you need to make any changes.

Step 2: List your expenses

Start with the necessities: food, housing, utilities and transportation. Under each category, list the related expenses. Be sure to include items that you pay for only once in a while (like auto registration and annual subscriptions).

Food expenses can be tricky to estimate. If you do most of your grocery shopping at H-E-B, Sam’s Club, or Costco, one suggestion is to look at your online bank account and sort purchases by description. If you set the date range to cover the past 6–12 months, then sort by description, you can get a good estimate of your grocery expenses in an average month.

It’s important to include space in your budget for life’s little extras, like eating out, gifts, auto and home repairs and medical expenses. If you have debts (such as a car loan, student loan, credit card debt or a mortgage), those need to be included, too.

Helpful tip: This is a good time to visit HelpInsure.com, a resource developed by the Texas Department of Insurance and the Office of Public Insurance Counsel, to see if you're getting the best rates on auto and home insurance.

Five steps for creating or updating a healthy budget continues on Wednesday with step 3.

Budgeting resources:

Popular budgeting apps

EveryDollar

Mint

YNAB

Budget PDF worksheet

Set goals, calculate your income and monthly expenses.

Financial resources from LifeWorks

LifeBenefits.com/LFG 

User name: lfg

Password: resources

ERS Walk and Talk podcast

Financial health is peace of mind

ERS Health Promotion Administrator Lacy Wolff talks with Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner financial experts about all the ways our finances impact our health and strategies to stay on track.

Send this information directly to your cell phone:

Text TXERS Wellth to 468311