Here we are at the last article in my series on building a better budget. In the first article, Budgeting, your key to personal financial growth, we looked at the importance of having a budget in the first place - why it's important to have one at all, and what it can help you to achieve.

My second article, Getting to the Details looked at how I use categories to track incoming, saving and expenses important to achieving my own financial goals. Here I showed you the framework I use to track my own finances as a starting point for your own budget.

My third installment dealt with putting your budget to use - how you can go about using my method in your own life. The key benefit illustrated here is that the proper budget for your unique lifestyle can not only be an effective tool, but also stay out of your way. After all, nobody wants the process to be a burden. That's a sure fire path to giving it up as a failure.

In this article I want to discuss with you how I go about using this budget methodology over the long haul. After all, budgeting isn't at all a short term thing. Paycheck to paycheck and month to month are relatively simple things to manage. It's the long term we're after here. We want to be financially secure and we want to have a nice car and a decent place to live. But we don't want to force ourselves to live like paupers, saving every last penny, in the process.

The secret to managing your long term financial future with your budget is in top-down planning. Remember our categories?

That last line, Surplus (Deficit), should always balance out to about zero each month. How do we get it to do that? The easiest way I've found is to plan ahead. I have a duplicate listing of these categories I use at the beginning of each year where I allocate a yearly - you can break it down into monthly if you like - amount to each category. I estimate how much will come in and how much will go out for each line item. As income rolls in and expenses roll out I allocate them to each category, subtracting or adding, to keep a running total in each budget category. This way there is always a running total for each category, including the all important "Total Expenses", "Total Income" and "Surplus (Deficit)" categories.

Sometimes we get off track in one or more categories. When this happens it's time for a budget meeting. Have priorities changed? Do we have a one-time event? Do we need to make down stream adjustments? All questions to answer. The important thing here is that an effective budget keeps the discussion about finances on a managerial level. It doesn't become an emotional thing. We're talking about managing budget accounts, not whether our spending is appropriate or not.

Once the budgeting process becomes habit, and an actively managed activity, the path to long term success and achieving your financial goals becomes clear. Savings for a new house, a car, college for the kids... can all be managed right alongside everyday expenditures for things that make life the fun and enjoyable experience it should be.

With an effective budget in place you won't ever have to worry whether you'll be able to afford the things you want - a comfortable retirement, a vacation home on the lake or even dinner at a nice restaurant. It will all be there in your budget spreadsheet, plain to see and straightforward in how to go about achieving it.

I hope this budgeting article series has been helpful. I realize it might be a bit difficult to follow in a lot of respects. It's proved to be much more difficult for me personally to write about than I thought it would be. I'd like to make these budgeting articles as complete as possible for you. If you have any comments or questions - points that need clarification - feel free to leave me a comment below.