Judy Ellsworth

Born and raised in the Mid-West, Judy has lived on the north, east, and west borders of the United States and is now back in the Mid-West again. Her education includes degrees in Home Economics Education and Textiles, Clothing & Design as well as a Museum Studies certificate.

Judy’s early career included serving as an advisor in the National Institute of Food & Agriculture’s Cooperative Extension System. She has served in this role in the states of Kansas, Nebraska, and North Carolina. She has also taught adult education classes for community colleges in Wisconsin and California. For the past 12 years, she has served as Director of Operations for Success Strategies, Inc., a consulting company founded in 1999 by her husband, John, to incorporate a “team approach” in the area of agricultural finance.

Her passion is developing management systems!

Six years ago, Judy and her family wrote a book on financial savings goals and methods, called Saving For A Sunny Day. “We were motivated by the methods that have worked well for us to get two children through college debt free. These methods could easily work for others! Our mission is to help people develop a manageable savings plan that fits their goals and their lives, as well as realizing how time and energy play an essential role in where our money ends up!”

In her free time, she enjoys planning new family adventures and traveling to exciting places, baking, quilting, taking long walks, and spending time with their adult children.

Budget Form

“If you measure something, you can understand it. If you understand it, you can control it, and if you can control it, you can improve it.” The same holds true in your monthly budgeting.

The reality is that it is nearly impossible to complete & follow a monthly budget without improving your overall financial position. There are several reasons for this, so I would challenge you to do this.

First, just developing a budget for yourself will raise your awareness of what you have for revenue or income sources and then also boost your cognizance of how much you are spending each month. Next, you will come to grips with the reality of one of three facts. Either you need to boost your income sources, reduce your outgoing expenditures or, thank goodness, if you have more income than expenses, you can then save some money. Of course, this is fantastic! You just need to determine where you will store or invest those extra funds each month…

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