February 5, 2010. To live within your means, you must know your net financial expenses. These are the monthly total of your fixed, variable and discretionary expenses. To calculate your net financial expenses, you need your total fixed monthly expenses and your average monthly variable expenses.
In sum, there are essentially six elements to a contract. For a contract to be considered valid, there must be an offer, acceptance by another party, an exchange of something of value or consideration, mutually agreed upon terms, both parties must be free of mental illness and the terms must not break any laws.
A handshake agreement is not considered to be a legally binding contract unless a firm offer is made and accepted. Each party must give the other something of value, such as money or even a promise, to seal the agreement.