System of Family Budgeting as a Methodological Basis for Personal Accounting and Guarantee for Growth of Financial Literacy of the Russians

Abstract

Under modern conditions of increased demand for the level of financial literacy of the economic subjects, together with an urgent problem of reduction of the level of real disposable income of the citizens, and against the background of the long financial and economic crisis, the actuality of effective management of private finances at the level of a family is very high. The authors offer an operational hypothesis stating that flexible managerial solutions in the sphere of private finances are possible on the basis of relevant information about the facts of economic life of a family, accumulated in the system of family budgeting, as a methodological basis for personal accounting. The purpose of the article is to define the terminological apparatus of scientific categories and thus develop a system of budgeting as a methodological basis for personal accounting and guarantee of the growth of financial literacy of the Russians. The tasks were the following: determining the content and specifics of the use of accounting in the sphere of private finances; defining the terminological apparatus of management of private finances; developing and offering a system of family budgets, adapted for specifics of private financial planning; testing the offered system by the example of a specific family. The research was built on the use of the methods of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction. The research was conducted at micro- and nano-economic levels. The received results, conclusions, and offers were transformed into graphic form. The article makes a conclusion that personal accounting of a family can be viewed as a sub-type of managerial accounting and, consequently, it is possible to use the tested instrumentarium of managerial accounting in methodological development for personal family accounting. That’s why the authors developed and described the system of budgets which includes the budget of incomes, expenses, and investment & saving budget, which allows conducting the current and strategic management of personal family finances. Theoretical and methodological developments of personal accounting are shown in the article by a specific example.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5p413