Tip - How can I budget for both short-term expenses and long-term goals?

The first step in planning for long-term goals is actually determining how much you spend on short-term expenses. Once you know how much money is spent on the here-and-now, you can assess how much money can be put into investment vehicles for the future.Regular monthly expenses such as cable or cell phone bills should be easy to assess, but what about less frequent expenses like yearly insurance premiums? You can take these large lump sums and pro-rate them over the number of months from the time that you start the budget to when the event occurs.
Tags: budget,budgeting,buy and hold,retirement budgeting